How to photograph your dog (for a tin label)
A few simple tricks to get a photo that prints beautifully on a tin.
You’re about to put your dog’s face on a tin that sits in your kitchen for a month. Worth getting right. Here’s how, without any fancy gear.
Light first, everything else second
Face your dog towards a window during the day. That’s it — that’s the trick. Soft, even, natural light flatters every dog and prints beautifully. Avoid flash: it flattens the face and produces that eerie eye-shine.
Get down to their level
Photos taken from above make dogs look like they have enormous heads and no legs. Kneel or lie down so the camera is at their eye level. Suddenly they look like themselves.
Bribe shamelessly. A treat held just above the lens gets you a bright, alert, ears-forward shot in about four attempts.
Fill the frame
We crop to a circle on the tin label, so the face should fill a good portion of the image. Head and shoulders is ideal. Leave a little space above the ears.
Keep it simple
- A plain background or a soft blur beats a busy one.
- One dog per photo — no photobombing best friends.
- Shoot in colour, not a heavy filter. The tin has its own look.
- Take twenty shots. Choose the one where they look like themselves, not the one where they’re perfectly posed.
The technical bit
JPG, PNG or WebP, up to 5MB. If you’re using a phone, the standard camera app is more than good enough. If your photo is very dark or very small, it’ll still print — but it’ll print dark or small.
Finally
The best tin label isn’t the most professional photo. It’s the one that makes you smile every time you open the cupboard. Choose that one.