Photographing your Labrador
Having good photos to draw from is really key to helping me create a beautiful bespoke dog portrait that captures everything you love about your Labrador. Being great food lovers, Labradors are often fairly easy to photograph. If your lab is proving a little camera shy, you’d be amazed at the difference a tasty incentive can make! Whether your Labrador is black, yellow or chocolate, photographing her in good natural lighting will really bring out the colours in her coat and beautiful shape of her face. It will also allow me to see those gorgeous rich browns in her eyes.
I always recommend getting down at eye level with your lab if possible. This avoids any odd perspectives which can happen when pointing the camera down at her.
For some more tips on photographing your Labrador, read my photo guide.
I’m also happy to arrange a photoshoot with you to photograph your dog. I’m based in Cornwall in the UK, so if you’re local to me, or plan to visit on holiday just get in touch and we can sort something out!
What size should your Labrador portrait be?
There’s a lot to a Labrador, not just in personality but also in size! Being a large breed, you might want to consider the larger portrait sizes for your artwork, especially if you’re gifting your dog portrait and are looking for that wow factor. This will allow me to capture much more detail in your portrait so that it really springs to life.
As a guide, a head and shoulders portrait of your Labrador in my largest size (18 x 24 inches) would be life sized. To view my full range of pet portrait sizes, read my size guide.
Best backgrounds for your Labrador portrait
One of the best things about commissioning a custom portrait of your pet, is that I can tailor it to your exact requirements. The type of background you opt for has a huge bearing on the overall feel of your pet portrait, and your Labrador’s personality can feed into this in a number of ways. When you think about your dog, what is the first thing that comes to mind? Is it having her snuggled up on the sofa with you? If so, then a warm cosy background colour could work well – creams or a warm stone colour for instance.
You might picture your Labrador out with you on a game shoot. Or diving into a pond to retrieve a ball. In which case, maybe a blue background would be best. Or a diffuse out-of-focus green foliage effect.
Or perhaps you’d love a more detailed background that features a particular setting? Their favourite place to go on walkies, down on the beach maybe, or perhaps snuggled up in their blanket with their favourite toy.
Something as simple as the background and setting will help portray your lab in the environment where they’re at their happiest, and will really make your pet portrait extra special to you. You can view examples of different backgrounds in my dog portraits gallery.
Choosing a pose for your Labrador portrait
The pose that you choose for your custom dog portrait can say a lot about your dog, so choose something that you feel reflects his personality well. If he’s a laid-back Labrador that loves to chill you might opt for a lying down pose.
Labradors in particular have really perfected that loving expression so Labrador portraits often work well when they’re looking right at you.
If your dog is a die-hard swimmer, you may opt to have him drawn with wet fur, fresh from the lake! Perhaps she’s a highly trained gun dog and you’d like her clutching her training dummy in her mouth.
The images below will give you a few ideas for your own custom Labrador portrait.
