On lead or off lead?

A question that commonly gets asked prior to booking is whether their dog will still be okay to be on the lead as most of my pictures that I post look like the dog is off their lead and has no collar on - the answer is simple, yes!

On most of my shoots, and during nearly every shoot, at some point a dog is put on his/her lead to be able to gain a better angle and better control of their pet, and as I generally shoot in areas known for dog walkers it’s not uncommon to have dogs on the lead and some dogs not having the best recall - it only takes a couple of minutes to edit out a lead and a little bit longer for collars but this is totally fine, during shoots my number one priority is the safety of your pet and yourself, as well as others, and I like to let the owner have control on whether or not they will chose to have their pet on a lead. There may be times I will encourage an owner to put their pet on a lead if the dog isn’t being particularly co-operative, just to be able to get angles and shots otherwise particularly difficult when the pet is off the lead, especially when toys and treats are involved! Dogs know their owners and will usually spend the vast majority of their time staring at them particularly if they are quite grounded, so I generally recommend more than one person come to the shoot with their pet so as though one has control & the other can stand behind me, or other directions so I am able to gather the attention of the pet to where I want it shot… This is the same as Horses with their Halters on, as you can see on the picture below, beautiful Tommy had his halter on. When the image is unedited they generally look quite dark and miserable and this is why editing, and photographers develop their own styles. Now let’s edit this:

Tommy & Hannah

As you can see in the picture below, that is the result after. The image is straightened and the halter and distractions have been removed. This can sometimes be a very quick process especially with dog leads / collars, and other time more time consuming. Editing the Halter on Tommy took me approximately an hour.

I have also attached a before and after of a few dogs and their leads / collars. It really doesn’t matter and if anything, it is more advised especially for posing and control, but if your dog is well trained on and off lead then it doesn’t really matter. I have found some dogs have better recall than others and that is totally okay.

As you can see on each shot the pets have collars on and / or leads on. This is not an issue so if you feel like your pet wont be easy to photograph, don’t let that put you off from booking a shoot as it is generally recommended and encouraged.

Want more information? Contact me today and I could feature your next question in a blog post!