We recently talked about how to eliminate red eye when taking your photographs, because there’s nothing worse than having the perfect picture ruined by the red stare of your own flash bounced back into the lens from your subject. It ruins your photos, and while it can be touched up later by computer manipulation or even by some high end digital cameras, it’s always best to avoid it altogether.

But what if you want to take photos of your pets? Asking your dog to look slightly off centre of the lens isn’t really practical as they won’t understand what you’re saying. Even if they do, chances are they won’t do it!

Instead, you could reduce the chance of red eye with your pets by photographing them in action shots rather than trying to get them to pose. After all, it’s more natural for your dog to be leaping around the garden than sitting there staring at a camera.

Alternatively, if you must have that posed shot, you can try moving the camera away from your pet’s eye level just before you take the picture. This should ensure that no light is bounced back, causing red eye. You will run the risk however of causing the image to be blurred if you move too quickly. You’ll need to trial this for the perfect image.

Then you’ll hopefully have a photo of your pet worthy of printing on canvas.