Document your pet's life through photos with pet photography tips

Pets can be so wonderfully cute – many of us will often find ourselves reaching for the camera to capture their crazy antics, funny expressions and quirky habits.  The challenge is that most animals are completely uninterested in having their photo taken. In fact, some creatures will do everything within their power to frustrate and outwit you. So, you'll need a few tricks up your sleeve to grab their attention. A combination of camera skills, posing tricks and a pocketful of treats should give you the edge in this battle of wills.

Follow the advice below to take great pet photos and make sure to read till the end for tips on creating personalised pet scrapbook.

Pets are part of the family so they should be photographed with the same care and attention. They may require a bit more persuasion to stay in the same place or hold a pose, so use a few treats, toys and, ideally, an assistant to get the best from a photo session.

Whether you’re photographing pets at home or try the outdoor pet photography, the setting in which you photograph your pet makes a big difference. For relaxed portraits, set up where your pet normally likes to rest. Alternatively, choose the location where you want to take the picture and try to entice your pet into position using their favourite treat or toy. Dogs tend to be a bit easier to pose than cats, as it doesn't take as much to get them interested. A quick whistle, a cry of 'where's the cat' or any funny noise will usually get their attention. While walking your dog, pay attention to the places that would create beautiful background for your pet portrait.

All animals have their own individual characters, but it's fair to say that cats are usually less eager to please. Here are some cat photography tricks.

Patience is key, and you may need to wait a while for the cat to relax. Try getting them settled in one position, such as a comfy chair or a stool (you could even bring their pet bed). Keep a favourite toy or food bowl to hand, and gently tap it above the lens to grab the cat's attention. If they won't do what you want then be prepared to change your approach – after all, if being aloof is part of their character then why not capture this in the photograph?

Christmas is the perfect time to try to capture a portrait of your favourite pet. A picture of your cat, dog or hamster posing in festive gear would make a fun image for a home-printed card, or could be framed to create a bespoke gift.

A Christmas tree makes for an attractive backdrop for your Christmas pet portraits. It gives you both bold colours and bright highlights. Using props in pet photography, such as Santa hats and scarves can look great too, as long as your pet is amenable to wearing them. Ideally choose a room with large windows for your shoot. Natural light is ideal for pet portraiture as it's soft and gently fills in the shadows, while using a flash may spook your animal. Position your pet facing the window, with the Christmas tree and lights behind them.

Setting ISO to Auto means it will adapt to the conditions – in a bright room with plenty of window light, the ISO should hover around 800-1600. At these ranges, a camera that performs well in low light will allow you to capture relatively noise-free shots. If your lens has stabilisation, then it's best to switch this on too.

Your shutter speed needs to stay fast enough to capture the action. Around 1/200 sec is ideal if the animals are fairly still, but you'll need to go faster if they're moving around a lot. We also recommend a wide aperture, as this will separate the subject from the background and create lovely bokeh.

Choose an exposure setting that you can set and forget, as it will free you to concentrate on the posing and framing. The simplest way to do this is to set your camera to manual exposure mode (M).

When you’re photographing an animal with dark or black fur, you may find that your pictures come out too bright. The opposite can happen with white or pale animals, with pictures appearing too dark. If they’re too bright, use your camera’s Exposure Compensation function to darken the exposure, and take another shot. If the animal appears darker than it should be, use Exposure Compensation to brighten the exposure, and take another shot.

Focusing can be one of the biggest challenges in pet portraiture, as you need to focus precisely on the eyes of a creature that might move its head at any moment, or scamper off.

All new EOS R System cameras, including EOS R100 and EOS R10 have an Animal Detection autofocus mode.

This means the camera will track the movement of the animal and adapt the focus to lock on to their shifting positions. Precise focusing is crucial when shooting close-ups, so it may not be enough to simply lock on to the face. Instead, try switching to Animal Eye AF, if your camera has that option, or a single focus point, then aim this over the eye that is closest to the camera.

All the techniques that work well for portraits of people can be applied to portraits of animals. Photograph in soft light, focus on the animal’s eyes (or the eye closest to the camera if their head is at an angle) and check that there are no distractions in the background. Make the effort to get down to their eye level for more intimate shots.

Set your camera to Aperture Priority (Av) mode, as this will give you more control over how much of the background appears sharp. It's usually best to use a wide aperture for your pet portraits as this means your shots will have a shallow depth of field, and the background will be thrown out of focus.

As well as throwing the background out of focus, you could also add some bokeh in the foreground.

Using a longer focal length can also enhance the blur, so try stepping back and zooming in with your lens.
For festive pet portraits, try holding Christmas lights in front of the lens, and find a gap to shoot through. At the right angle, this can result in beautiful out-of-focus highlights that surround your subject and add an extra element of depth to the scene.

To photograph your pets in action, you’ll need to set up your camera appropriately. If you're new to photography, use Sports mode so that the camera continues to focus as the animal moves, improving your chances of taking a sharp picture.

If you're familiar with Shutter Priority (Tv) mode, use this to set a fast shutter speed to freeze the action. Select Servo/AI Servo AF in your camera's focus settings so that the camera can track your pet's movements. Double check on your camera that the right subject is detected.

If you’re working with a dog which is good at retrieving, throw a toy into the distance so that you can get a shot of the dog running back towards the camera.

You're bound to have lots of fun trying to capture that perfect shot – even if your pet isn't always willing to cooperate. Whether you're attempting an animal portrait at Christmas or any other time of the year, it's a great opportunity to practise your technique and enhance your photography skills.

Now that you have your pet photos taken, learn how to create your own personalised pet scrapbook with them.

Printed pictures deserve a home, and a scrapbook is an amazing way to capture all the precious memories of your pet in one place.

Here are few ways you can put together a creative and personalised scrapbook with ease:

• First of all, you want to choose the right images. If you have enough pictures, then you could create a pet memory book with pictures of your fury friend from your first days with them to the present. You can crop these images in different formats (horizontal, vertical and square) to add variety to the scrapbook. Perhaps you could organise images by location or even colour – imagine an autumn themed section filled with fun images of your pup playing in the leaves.

• The SELPHY Photo Layout app (SPLA) is great for adding fun to your images printed on a SELPHY CP1500 or Canon SELPHY QX20 By adding decorations such as speech bubbles and overlays, you can capture your pet’s personality. Use the caption-able borders of the Canon SELPHY QX20 sticker paper to write about your pet’s favourite activities, or mark big milestones – like Fredo the French Bulldog’s first car ride or Clarissa the hamster’s first time on the wheel. (Adorable.)

• The Canon SELPHY QX20 makes it easy to print high-quality images in different formats with imaginative layouts. It has 2 sizes of paper. But you can use a collage to add variety to the sizes (by overlaying some elements on top of others in different ratios), or use the SPLA to create collages with smaller images so you can cut it into smaller stickers. With the SELPHY CP1500 you have even more options with three different sticker sizes: square, card-sized, and mini stickers.. There are loads of size options giving you freedom to create a beautiful scrapbook out of those heart-warming pet portraits of your cuddly buddy.

• In terms of layout, consider filling the empty space with fun accents such as washi tape, paw prints, you could also leave room for handwritten notes that tell a little story behind each photo.

There are so many possibilities for preserving pet memories, and the creative choices are yours to make.