if you’re in Ontario, everything’s looking pretty white now. i hope you’re all enjoying the latest snowfall …
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… staying warm …
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and keeping your balls safe.
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Internationally-renowned, award-winning animal photographer Illona Haus created scruffy dog photography inc. as the province's premier pet photography business in 2007 ... the first of its kind in Canada ... and, still today, continues to serve clients across Ontario, the US and the world. Based in Kitchener, Ontario and photographing exclusively animals for almost 20 years - both commercially and for private clients - Illona is considered one of the world's leading and most influential pet photographers.
To learn more about scruffy dog photography, its creator, history, and the scruffy dog experience, feel free to browse through the menu above, and scroll over a decade's worth of blog entries below!
Please drop me a line! I'd love the opportunity to capture stunning, creative, one-of-a-kind photographic memories of your 4-legged loved ones to treasure in artwork for a lifetime, and show you just what makes the scruffy dog experience second to none.
i’m often asked — when clients see some of the extreme before-and-afters during their consults here at the studio, as well as by other photographers — to share some of my behind-the-scenes post-production work. and in the past, when i’ve blogged some of the work that is done on the scruffy dog images, viewers are always wanting more.
so, when i can, i will offer up some samples.
while this one of crazy GSP Marlie isn’t what i’d call an “extreme”, it illustrates a typical working of an image. of course, it definitely goes without saying that the initial image could have been a dozen times better out-of-camera, but this girl was constantly on the move, even in her backyard, and as a result, making changes to the camera’s settings at GSP-speed isn’t always possible.
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straight-out-of-camera
this was shot late in the evening, the sun was down and we had NO light — Nikon D3S, 17mm, f4.0, 1/200, ISO 1250.
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crop and straighten
i don’t do a lot of cropping of images … preferring to compose in-camera … but when this girl decided to stop briefly, there was no time to adjust my focal range. just grab the shot.
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typical post-work in Lightroom
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the finished piece with final working and touching up in Photoshop
again, there’s no miraculous salvage-job with this piece … i’ll share some of those with you in the future on the blog. this one was pretty typical processing, mostly done in Lightroom, adjusting everything from white-balance to tone curve and colors. and yes, i always do a little extra work on eyes, mostly with the adjustment brush in LR.
have a great Sunday, everyone.
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15 comments
Glad to hear you’re a Nikon user! Interesting stuff.
Anyone wanting some basic Lightroom tips may find these videos useful: http://froknowsphoto.com/category/lightroom/ReplyCancel
it’s been suggested to me by other pro-photographers that i not put as much effort in my client-galleries … that i should post the final cut of “raw”/unedited images (pre-production), and let the client decide which images i should work on.
granted, it would save me a great deal of work, but how many clients would look at that top image and actually posses the vision required to visualize the finished piece, to see its potential? not many, i suspect.
for those of you shooting — obviously the goal is to shoot the best quality possible SOOC (straight out of camera), and under the right conditions i’ll have a number of images per shoot that don’t require this kind of transformation … some require even more. shooting crazy dogs and available light where every turn in the trail offers a new set of challenges, will get you a real mixed-bag on the memory card. either way, for my tastes, every image receives some work.
as for learning Lightroom — i’m not sure you need classes, although don’t let me stop you. the best teacher is experience, and to get you started, Scott Kelby’s book is worth every penny and — i think — offers more than any class possibly could.ReplyCancelthanks for sharing, because I was beginning to think I was crazy! Trying to get the perfect shot all the time…many times I have been at the park with friends dogs and sun goes down and cannot change camera setting to get a shot and color is ALL wrong! NOw I just need to learn a little lightroom to help me some! 🙂
Super job!ReplyCancel
a lot of gift certificates have been leaving the scruffy dog studio this season, but there’s still time for you to put a little piece of scruffy dog under the tree this year for your favorite family member, your closest friend, or even your best friend — Rover himself … and Fi-fi too.
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there is a variety of ways you can customize your gift certificate: purchase a dollar amount which can be applied toward a session, purchase a complete photo session, or cover all the bases for your loved one and purchase a photo session and a print/product package … whatever fits your budget and situation. and each gift certificate is custom designed with the individual recipient in mind …
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(obviously i’ve had to blur out some of the essentials!)
of course, gift certificates are available year round, but for those looking for something different to make their loved ones’ Christmas morning a little more exciting …
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… a scruffy dog gift certificate is a great option. just contact us via the website to get yours!
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Liz ~ elizabeth&janeSo cute – I love your comment about “keeping your balls safe” hahahaha
S. DLove it 🙂
Michael HowieLove the winter fun pics – but it sure didn’t feel that fun to me today! When you’re doing post editing what tool do you use for getting the eyes to pop without getting a painted effect? And are you clone stamping in the leash removal/touch ups?
I’d love to have you in for a session with my guys on photoediting – you do such masterful work!
illonayeah, Michael, “fun” if you’re a dog with four-paw drive vs. trying to navigate the mess on the roads, for sure.
some photographers use the brush in Photoshop to work on the eyes, claiming that Lightroom’s adjustment brush doesn’t work as well for them. but i love LR’s adjustment brush and because i have such volume of images and so many times i can’t resist tweeking the eyes, it makes more work-flow sense for me to do it in LR than export into PS, then back again. also, with LR’s adjustment brush, it’s a matter of choosing just the right amount of feathering needed … i.e. for clean catchlights, not a lot of feathering (maybe 15), to bring more light into the iris i might use a little more feather (maybe 40ish). and the once you lay down your areas with the brush, you can use the sliders to adjust the amounts. of course, this all becomes second nature the more you work with it.
the thing is, you can’t accentuate what isn’t there. if the eyes are in complete shadow and you’re putting in fake catchlights, well, that’s what they’ll look like. at least the ‘bones’ have to be there as you see in the previous blog entry.
removal of leashes … i definitely do this in Photoshop … clone-stamp. LR’s cloning/heal tool is only good for minor stuff. and i don’t usually remove leashes until we go to print, otherwise i’d be at this forever! 🙂