Photographing at Dog Shows

On Sunday 10th July 2016, I went to Liskeard and District dog show at the Royal Cornwall Showground. The aim of the day was to show my dogs, while also photographing the breeds within the Gundog group. These photographs would form part of my 3rd year project.

When photographing at dog shows it can be difficult due to the lighting and also getting the right background. If you are going to photograph the dog when they are in the ring, you need to take into consideration that you will not get a plain background. So with this you need to make sure that you get the camera settings right so that the dog is lit right, then you can work on the background in Photoshop. As mentioned in a previous blog, when working on the photograph in Photoshop, you need to carefully select the background a drop the saturation and drop the brightness. However, this can be difficult when editing a photograph of a long coat breed seen bellow, as you might not be able to avoid selecting some of the flicks of fur.

Another problem that I face at dog shows is the lack of lighting. At the Royal Cornwall Showground there are not lights within the cattle shed, in which we show our dogs, so I have to rely on the natural lighting which comes through the clear plastic within the roof. This means that I have to have my ISO higher than 200, and I also have to keep changing my camera settings due not the light changing through each ring, depending on the positions of he plastic in the roof. This also causes problems when photographing dark coloured or black dogs, as you have to reduce the camera settings to lighten the dog, which then overexposes the background. However, this can be to an advantage, as seen in the photograph bellow, where the grey floor looks like a white studio background.

So when going to photograph at a dog show, make sure you keep checking your camera settings as the light might change. Also don't worry to much about the background as you can edit it within Photoshop. But even though the lighting is poor, NEVER turn on your flash as it can distract the dog while it is in the ring.