>>4428318rabid pet photographer here (I work for shelters and rescue orgs pro bono (and me also having some anyways) besides my other photo businesses)
Some tips (couuld be way longer so just a few which came to my mind quickly)
- If you can, don't use flash, use LED lightning
Neither cats, nor dogs like flashes and the ones really annoyed by that will simply turn their heads away, etc.
1-2 cheap led tubes like the weeylite k21 (which you can pickup for like 30USD/EUR at sales) are way better. Just don't blind them with them. If you can get bigger ones, the better but 1-2 k21 or similar sized are always handy bc sometimes you are tight on space.
- Get on their level. Don't bend down from standing if you can, but sit actually down.
- Get to know their psychology. What why are they are doing, how they will react to particular things, etc. These things won't be the same for a cat and a dog
- Keep your dof in check, for artistic reasons it meght be nice to have only the whiskers in focus, but usually you want those big eyes and ears also in focus. In prportions dog and cat faces are way longer ofc than a human one
- Talking about humans. Regular human enviromental portrait composition techniques also work here, don't be afraid of experimenting with those
- Shutter sound can help you grab their attention, so don't be afraid shooting bursts bc the second or third photo will be frequently better in the series (another reason why you are better off with led lights)
- if you start to do photography for rescue orgs, wide (sub 20mm) and bright (better than 2.8) lenses will go a long way as they allow you to more easily photography in the tight quarantine compounds and sleeeping bunks
