The Last Word – Ann Hamilton: Cupcake

In addition to weddings, photographer Ann Hamilton has created an interesting niche market in photographing dogs. This charmer, a 7-month-old bulldog puppy named Cupcake, was photographed in Ann’s San Francisco studio.

“With a little coercing from my clients, the dog’s ‘parents,’ Cupcake turned over and had her belly rubbed until she fell asleep in this position,” says Ann. “My clients requested this shot because this is a typical pose for Cupcake when she’s at home.”

To capture the shot, Ann placed the pup on white seamless paper and lit the area using one studio strobe and a Photogenic PowerLight 1250 with a Plume Wafer octagonal softbox. “I always have my ISO set at 200 and usually shoot at f/6.3, then open up or stop down depending on the dog’s fur color. In Cupcake’s case, I shot this image at 1/160 at ISO 200.” Ann says she usually sets the flash power between 1/4 and 1/8 with the modeling light always on full power.

When it comes to postproduction on her dog portraits, the image is first cleaned up—with special attention paid to the seamless paper. “With dogs, there’s always some drool, a few paw prints or loose fur on the seamless,” Ann notes. Next, the levels are adjusted, if needed. Ann’s last step in postproduction is applying a recipe of actions she’s acquired over the years and tailored to suit her tastes. “I shoot in RAW and use Photo Mechanic to edit my images. Once edited, I use Adobe Lightroom to make some minor tweaks and convert the files to JPEGs. Then I upload all the images to a private gallery using PickPic for my clients to view their images online.”

When photographing dogs, or any animals for that matter, Ann says patience is the key and less is more. “I love having a very simple setup when I’m doing dog portraits. The less I have to worry about, the better. Knowing your setup well allows you to focus on what’s really important: your subject’s personality!” To see more of Ann Hamilton’s work visit www.annhamilton.com.

Michelle Perkins is a writer, designer, and photographer from Buffalo, NY. Her next book, due out in March 2009 from Amherst Media, is titled 500 Poses for Photographing Women: A Visual Sourcebook for Professional Photographers.