How-To

Better pet photos start with your phone

Improve pet photos with phone settings, better lighting, eye-level framing, and tricks for capturing natural attention.

Aug 18, 2026 · 3 min read

Pets are small, fast, unpredictable—and rarely interested in following directions. But with the right light, camera settings, and timing, your phone can capture sharper, more expressive photos. The Verge reports these practical techniques from photographer Dominic Preston.

Set up the hardware

Use the camera you already have with you. A dedicated camera can help, but a better phone camera may be more useful—and cheaper—for spontaneous pet photos.

I shot these on film, though every other photo in this piece came from a smartphone.

This is Noodle.

And this is Loaf.

This photo is a little dark, but I love Rolo’s expression.

The expression makes this too: Daisy’s slight snaggletooth.

Add light for indoor portraits. A dedicated light can reveal detail and prevent household lighting from making photos look flat or overly yellow. A cheap $40 Raleno softbox can work for staged shots, although it is less useful for candid photos.

A dedicated light can help with indoor photos.

So long as your pets don’t get too distracted by it.

Adjust the camera settings

Increase the shutter speed when your pet is moving. A shorter exposure reduces motion blur. On many Android phones, sports mode handles this automatically; on iPhones and most Android phones, burst mode captures a rapid sequence so you can choose the sharpest frame.

With the right settings, even a smartphone can catch a dynamic shot like this in low light.

Shoot from your pet’s eye level

Crouch down and photograph your pet head-on rather than shooting from standing height. Eye-level photos generally create a stronger portrait and make it easier to frame the animal against a cleaner background.

I crouched down across the room to line up this shot of Pebble on a couch.

I’ve always thought of this as Loaf’s official school photo.

Big pupils.

This is a rare shot from standing that I think works well, but it’s because it let me capture more of the scenery behind Pebble.

Direct attention without forcing the shot

Pets will still move at the wrong moment, yawn, or turn away. Accepting those blurry and awkward frames is part of the process; they are often the photos that reveal the animal’s personality best.