1. No flash. Photos taken in natural daylight are best. If you do have to use flash, do it from a distance - minimum of arms length - so it doesn't 'bounce' off the pig.
2. Macro settings. Although designed for photos taken very close up, macro will pick up on more detail when photos are taken from a short distance away.
3. Safe and secure photo studio. Ideally you need a place they can't easily run away from. The sofa can be good, but a solid ground is preferable for a cleaner finish on the photo. You can try a table with the background draped over the back of the chairs, and set something large and solid that they cannot get around to create a '3 sided enclosure', leaving just the front section open where you will be sat taking the photos.
4. Plain background. This allows the focus to fall on the pig. Also try and use a floor material that does not show the hairs that will inevitably fall on the floor.
5. Simple props. Decide your theme and go with one or two props set off to the side. A photo where the prop is in the middle rarely works as well as when the pig is in the centre of the shot.
6. Take lots and lots of pictures! Every good photographer will tell you you have to take many pictures of the scene in order to ensure at least once decent photo! Myself, I tend to take a minimum of 20 of each pig.
7. Food. This is one of the hardest things to deal with, as often you may not want a) the food in the photo and b) you may not want the pig to be mid-munch! I do some shoots without food and, if I'm honest, I'm happier with those photos. The pigs don't get as wound up when there's no food about. However, having said all that, in the early days a bribe works well. Let the pig have a mouthful of something - parsley is good - then lift it up above their heads so they look up when they're ready for more - showing you their face and nose a bit more! You have to work quickly when food is involved but it can help when you're first attempting photo shoots.
8. Keep it short and sweet! Speak in a calm voice, and try to get the whole shoot over and done with in under five minutes per pig. Unless you have a pig who enjoys the photo shoots (I'm thinking of my Frankie here!) then you'll only have a few minutes before the pig gets fed up and you're just wasting your time trying to make them stay a bit longer.
The only editing I do of my images is cropping them, and very, very occasionally I will brighten or darken an image to bring out the colours a bit better. Beyond that I'm useless!
It takes lots of time to learn how to work the photo shoots. I will show you photos of my earliest shoots five years ago, and some of the best ones along the way. I started off by doing a photo shoot every few months, but I've found I've improved my skills the most over the past year by doing a shoot every month.
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