Photographing Cows on Clean Background
If you have a unique marketing project that would entail photography of a large animal, like a cow, how would you get a clean, white background behind this large animal so your graphic designer will be happy?
Sure, anyone can do a “cutout” of an animal with any kind of background, but professional graphic designers (and some professional photographers) know that making a clean, natural-looking “cutout” of a hairy, furry creature can be a P.I.A… In the long term, you’re better off with providing great images for your graphic design team to work with. After all, what creative director wants to give their design employees headaches?
One all-natural headache prevention is hiring a photographer. Not just ANY photographer, but a photographer who is most comfortable and skilled for that particular job. If you need several photos of happy cows to submit to your picky graphic designer, you’ll need a set of images from a commercial photographer who has the best combination of photography skills + animal behavior knowledge.
How to Photograph a Large Animal for a Studio-Style Look
A blown-out very bright background is often not ideal for photography, but the beautiful thing about being a commercial photographer is that if you know the photography “rules”, you know when you can break them if you wanted to achieve a particular look and style in scenarios with limitations.
Here are two different photos, taken with two different camera angles and exposure settings in the same spot. If the large animal is in a wide open spot like a field, you can get a studio-style photograph of the cow if the photographer is shooting at a lower level, exposing for the cow.
Benefits of Hiring a Photographer with a Farming Background
Why would a photographer with some knowledge about animal behavior, be beneficial to your photography project?
Let’s use the cow as an example for our animal. Cows are as skeptical about people as the farmers themselves. Individual cows can be curious, neutral, happy, weary, annoyed, or just plain mean. A photographer who has spent a lot of time around cattle would know how close or far to go while photographing. The last thing you need is animals running away from the film crew, or people head-butted by a moody cow.
Needing to work out project logistics with a busy cow farmer? Working with a true “cow photographer” helps build the minimal level of trust needed to cooperate with the farmer. Most farmers I’ve worked with care a lot about their cows, but are somewhat cautious over strangers that get in the way of their farming duties, or are weary about strangers that venture onto the farm for any photography reason. If you’re working on a project where you’d need certain cows to be photographed, it will be helpful for your photographer to have “common ground” with the farmer so that everyone can feel more comfortable about their cows being photographed in the best way possible.
How to Find a Commercial Animal/Cow Photographer
Professionals who are in the business of promoting special products and services, are technically in the business of making people happy. A person feels good about an experience before they even sign up for it, and that person’s choice is often determined by the image that draws their interest.
If you’re in the business of making happy clients, and you need animals in the images for the marketing project, you’ll need to have happy-looking animals.
Animals look happy in photos and video when their ears are perky. Happy cows are cows that are peaceful, content in chewing their or eating. Happy cows often close their eyes while chewing and it looks like they’re meditating!
If you want cows to look curious and camera-aware in a positive way, a photographer can make noise with a grain bag or grain bucket to get them to perk up their ears.
How do you find a commercial photographer who is comfortable around cattle?
Unfortunately, finding a really, really good commercial photographer who has “cow knowledge” is almost like searching for a pink and blue unicorn in the middle of a Montana forest. They are really hard to come by. In fact, I’m the only person I know who is a commercial photographer and knows cows.
In my past life, I worked for 6 years as a milk sample technician on dairy farms. I’ve been on every type of dairy and beef farm you could imagine. Also, I worked on a family dairy farm when I was in high school and college. My degree is in Animal Science from the University of Idaho. Although working in the livestock industry could have been a good path, I became a full-time, six-digit event photographer. My opinion, if there’s any industry that needs continued support and promotion, it is dairy and beef cattle farming. I’d be more than thrilled to work on more photography and video projects relating to the livestock industry!
