Words of advice from your web site

[Crias]

It has been brought up a couple of times about bad reference photos being sent for commisions. Do you have advice on photographing animals on your website? If you are willing to share the link I think it would be useful for others to see and I am curious what others have written.

Here is mine on my site, but it is a bit berried, so not sure how many people actually find it.

http://www.aphelionart.com/artpetpics.html

[Sandra B]

Wow Cathy, your tips are great. Much more detailed than mine. I should probably re-work that page to make some points more clear.
Your examples of good and bad shots are a clever idea!
Heres my not so detailed tips.
http://sandrabarnes.wetcanvas.com/id13.html

Sandy

[lorna12]

These are excellent tips!!

It is so funny (make that strange) that you should post this today. Yesterday I recieved these photos for a commission......very good examples of what NOT to do!

http://www.wetcanvas.com/Community/images/15-Nov-2003/11613-Bing_1.A.jpg
http://www.wetcanvas.com/Community/images/15-Nov-2003/11613-Bing_2.A.jpg

I'll have to make the best of these as the portrait is to be a xmas gift and my client swiped these from her son's photo album!! lol

I'll keep your tips in mind.... next time I'll tell the client to swipe good photos!

I forgot to add, I did find out the true color of the eyes!

[Canis Lupess]

I have a page of advice on my site with example photos to go with it.
Here is a link. It deals with all apsects of photographing animals including the right lighting conditions and such to knowing how to get an animal to cooperate with the camera.

http://www.geocities.com/luthien95/takingpics.html (http://)

[canvasjockey]

Cathy,

Great idea! I never thought of putting that on my web page!! Also, since I'm setting up at the horse show circuit, I will have a printed out version to hand to people (like I have one of my general portriat ordering info page).

BTW, lovely Belgian! My sister has a few and shows them (Karin Andreen - Ebonaire Belgians in Minnesota).

Again, thanks for the timely tip!

Carole

[k9artist]

Haaa..some people give you some real winners!! Here is my latest ..what do I do with that!!?? The dog is deceased now too!!
When I get my website..it will definatly have some photo tips!!
Dana

[Fort Meyer]

Crias, your tips and the page is great. The way I set mine up, link below, is that I send instructions for the owner to take photos. Seeing yours, I need to revise and give folks enough information to consider the commission right off the bat. Thank you for this thread.

Link to pet portraits instructions. (http://www.fortmeyereditions.com/pricelist.htm)

[Crias]

I first felt the need for a tips sheet after being asked to do a portrait of a white cat. The lady expressed that her cat had the most beautiful green eyes and that they were a very important feature of her pet. After getting the photos, where the cat was no larger than 1/2" in any of the 10 photos she sent me. She had cut out parts of the photos and in half the photos that cat was mostly hidden on flash photos (still only a very small portion of the photo). I actually had to go online and find photos of different photos of cats with greenish eyes and have her tell me what # most resembled her cats eyes. When I did this portrait I was very new to commisions and afraid to turn anything away. Today I would have turned her down if she couldn't provide better photos. It is a lot harder when the pet has passed away.

I am going to rate this thread, as you each have useful info on your sites!

[Canis Lupess]

I must admit, I have had to turn people away when they gave me bad photos because I insist on producing a picture that is the best of my abilities for them. If the ref picture is crap, I am unable to do that. The resulting portrait would therefore be of less standard and that is not good for me or the owners. thing is, people make out they know you can only do so much from the crap photo and when you do try your best, they look at the end result and aren't happy. All of a sudden, they think you should've been able to perfrom a miracle. It happened to me once with a cat picture and it will never happen again.

Sounds harsh but thats the way it is. I would not paint from a crap reference picture for those reasons.

[zilloot]

The first time I was unhappy with photos I was unhappy with the result (although the client still bought it). Horrible feeling.

If I can't take the photos myself I see it as a challenge to produce a picture using as much additional information I can get (animal personality etc) and tell the client fully about my approach. So far it has worked but with bad photos I've had days when I've bitten my fingernails up to my armpits!!!

I'm interested to know how much of a difference having a website has made to your 'business' of animal portraiture as I will be building mine in the new year. Has it helped being able to tell people how to take the photos beforehand?

Zilloot

[lorna12]

I posted the painting I just finished from the photos above and I think I made out okay this time (see "Bing").....but from now on people are going to get a list of do's and don't's for taking pictures, before I accept a commission. Thanks again for this thread!

[crazeejumper]

Haaa..some people give you some real winners!! Here is my latest ..what do I do with that!!?? The dog is deceased now too!!

OMG Dana, I feel for you!

Hey, this is a great idea. I've been thinking of putting photo tips on my site, but never had the time to do so. Guess I should make some time now before someone sends me crappy photos to work from. So far I've been lucky in receiving good photos or taking them myself!

[Loiosh]

Wow, those are really good ideas. I'll have to put up a page like that on my website when I get it rebuilt. :D