What Type of Dog Collar is Best for your Dog's Photo Shoot?
Are you considering a dog photo shoot but you aren’t sure about which type of collar will work best? I’m going to show you a lot of different photos that will help you answer that question.
Let me start off by saying, your dog’s safety is the #1 priority during the photo shoot.
That being said, I prefer dogs that look “naked” in their photos. I prefer the “no collar at all” look but that’s my personal opinion. These are your photos and they need to look the way you want them too.
Just remember, most of the dogs that I photograph are wearing a collar and are attached to a leash.
If you prefer the naked look, then the thinner the collar, the better. (Again your dog needs to be able to safely wear this type of collar.) If your dog has longer fur, then a thin collar probably won’t show in the photos at all.
If you prefer the naked look, if it is safe to do so we will use the slip leads that I have. They are show leads and are very thin and very thin means that they’re easily removed from the photo.
Below are 3 photos from a recent photo shoot with this adorable shar pei puppy named Hazel. Because she is a puppy, she wears a harness. She had it on while I was adjusting my camera settings so I had a couple of photos with her wearing it and then we switched her to one of my leads. In the 2nd photo, you can’t even see it around her neck because of her long fur.
shar pei puppy wearing a harness
shar pei puppy wearing a thin slip lead that can’t be seen at all since she has long fur
shar pei puppy photo and leash has been edited out
If you want your dog’s collar in the photos, make certain it’s clean and looks nice. Molly the poodle looks great wearing her colorful collar that really pops against her white fur.
The color of the collar is important too. If your dog wears a brightly colored collar, your eye might be drawn to the collar first instead of your pup’s cute face. That’s something else to keep in mind…. and probably a good topic for another blog post!
This french bulldog Odin is wearing a red collar. Because of where I am positioned for this shot, removing his collar in this photo would be extremely difficult.
Because the collar is directly underneath his jowls and directly behind the outline of his face, that makes it really hard. I’d also have to completely remove his whiskers underneath this chin which isn’t really an issue with Odin but with some dogs it would look weird.
One tip especially if your dog needs to be on a normal collar and not one of my slip leads, bring along a bowtie. This great dane puppy is Maestro Evan. He was a big puppy that needed to have his normal collar on. His mom brought this adorable bowtie for him to wear.
In the first photo below, he’s wearing the bowtie and his collar color blends in with it pretty well. In the 2nd photo, you can see his collar since it is bright green against his white fur.
You can “hide” your dog’s collar with the right bowtie.
great dane puppy in Charlotte NC wearing his normal collar
After comparing these photos, do you find that you prefer a certain look? If you do, then let’s talk about that option before your dog’s photo shoot.
As a final note I will say, be cautious about using collars that have your cell phone or other information on them. For safety reasons, many collars offer the option of stamping your contact information on the clasp or on a metal piece on the collar. That will show up in the photos and attempting to remove it in photoshop doesn’t work great. I don’t recommend these types of collars for photo shoots for that reason. (To be clear, they’re great collars…. just not for a photo shoot.)
To collar or not to collar, it’s personal preference!