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Lola, my nine pound Shih-Poo had been recently bugging me for a photo shoot.  She smelled bad (in a good way) and her hair was just the right amount of messy. On walks I’ve observed her admiring sheep dogs.  Her own bangs, although not long, were starting to get mangy.  She was adorable and she knew it.

She spent Saturday morning taking lots of short naps  in prominent places around the house.   These were followed by an unnecessary and ridiculously cute stretching regiment that she learned from a baby tiger show on Animal Planet.    She later spent the afternoon tossing her tiny rawhide toy into the air and pouncing on it like she was a kitten.   I watched her for a while before yelling,  “Okay, I’ll do it!”

I then gathered and set up my white muslin backdrop, speed lights and soft box.  Predictably,  Lola was no help.  I placed the speed lights as shown below, adjusted their zooms and set them all to manual mode.

Lighting Setup

I then adjusted the output of each light separately on my remote, eventually dialing in the correct amount of light.  The Hair Light was placed high on a stand while the Background Light was placed on the floor.  I used both of these lights bare, without diffusion.   Lola was concerned the harsh, bare Hair Light would make her look like a Rat Terrier.     I reassured her that the main light (Key Light), coming from the large soft box, would be very flattering on her fur.  She didn’t argue, and instead chewed on a bone.

While Lola liked the above photo very much, she has yet to figure out how to post it on Facebook.

The final photo was shot in manual mode at  ISO 125   59mm   f/5.6   1/125 sec.

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