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Before and After Dog Photos

Welcome to week two of our 52 Week Pet Photography Blog Circle. This week we are sharing a bit of “before and after” images. I decided to look back on last year and share some before and after of “leash removal” images.

Are you worried about having professional pet photos taken of your pet on a busy hiking trail with other dogs around and your dog isn’t 110% reliable “off leash”? Let me reassure you – don’t worry! The majority of my photo sessions are “on leash”. This is for the safety of everyone. New environments can be stressful for dogs, along with places that are very busy. Being a certified dog trainer safety is the number one importance.

But what about that leash? Guess what? We can magically remove it in post processing!

At the beginning of our session I go over some helpful tips on where to hold and position the leash to make things easier for removal. If your dog wears a harness, i do suggest switching over to martingale collar for the session. I give you the option of whether or not you like to keep their collar in images. A lot of times collars are part of the dogs personality and it’s how we see them. I know I have quite a collection of collars for my dog, Kota!

First I’d like to share a few “before and after” images from a session with a fellow dog trainer. Amy trains at Blue Dog in Andover, MA and she has four dogs of her own 🙂 One of them she rescued from the MSPCA – adorable Pepita Pequena – and I photographed Pepita, formerly “Sandy”, for Petfinder when she was up for adoption.

We had our session at a local vineyard, Zorvino Vineyards in Sandown, NH. Even though we had the grounds to ourselves bright and early, we started out with the pups on leash – this was a whole new area for them to check out, and we wanted to keep everything “safe”.

For the location of leash holding, the best way is either above the head in between the ears or off to the side a bit. If it’s a martingale collar that has the extra loop, it’s best to be turned toward the dogs back. For this edit, I used the “clone stamp” in photos shop. The clone stamp tool allows you to select parts of the image and “clone” that to another area. Also, Pepita looked a little on the green side due to some color casting (not her fault!) so I desaturated the greens in lightroom, and also brought the tint slider to the right to make the image a bit more “magenta”. Isn’t she the cutest little nugget?!

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Next up is Pepita’s brother, Jalapeno. Pepita wanted to be a part of this picture…. well, maybe? I ended up moving my focus right over to Jal because his pose was perfect for the camera! How about those ears! For the “after” I removed Pepita and the leashes. Again, I used the “clone stamp” tool here in photoshop. And then I cropped the image in more, taking out some of the sky.

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Next is from a session at Kenoza Lake in Haverhill, MA, with adorable Keeva. As I’m writing I could have titled this Blog Post “Chihuahua Photo Sessions”. Keeva was good off leash, but again we began the session with her on leash to get used to me and the other surroundings. This was the first image of the session near flowers by the parking lot. At this point we had yet to talk about leash placement – see how the leash is draped down her chest? That’s a challenging photoshop image! I again used the clone stamp tool to remove the leash. She had a beautiful collar on to leave in the images. I also warmed things up and brightened the flowers to give the image a pop of color.

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Hope you enjoyed a few examples of “before and after” from recent photo sessions. Remember, safety first and when in doubt, keep your dog on leash!

We have several new pet photographers in our blog circle! Next up is: Angela Schneider of Noses & Toes Pet Photography is the Spokane Dog Tog, serving Eastern Washington and North Idaho. Her heart soars with joy when she finds that special moment of love between you and your pet. Click on the link at the end of each post and follow along to see some amazing images from Pet Photographer’s around the world! Have a great weekend!

16 thoughts on “Before and After Dog Photos”

  1. Great explanation on how you remove the leashes. The colors of the flowers are so gorgeous. All the the pictures of the “Chihuahua Brigade” are great

  2. Jalapeño has fantastic ears! If it wasn’t enough to see this sneak peek of what you started with, your models are to die for.

  3. Great settings Darlene and terrific job with the leash on Keeva – that’s a tough one! That’s the kind of image that makes me cringe when it pops up on my display. Such a cute image, perfectly exposed….but the leash! It was worth saving!

    1. Thanks, Tracy! That was one of those pictures where I was kicking myself when I saw where the leash was – haha! Not an easy task that’s for sure, but Keeva looked adorable!

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