Want your dog to stand out more in the photo? Blurring the background is only one way to do it.
 

One of the most important things I look for when building a frame is separation. I want your eye to find the dog immediately, without having to search for it inside the background. Of course, the obvious way to create separation is background blur. Long lens, wide aperture, enough distance between the dog and the background... we already know that trick. But what happens when I actually want the background? Sometimes I’m photographing in an amazing location and blurring everything into a creamy mess would completely defeat the purpose of being there. I want the architecture, the lines, the shapes and the environment to be part of the photo... I just don’t want them fighting with the dog for attention.
 

That’s where I start looking for what I call “pockets”. A pocket is basically a clean area inside a much more complicated background where I can place the dog. It can be a dark area behind a light dog, a bright area behind a dark dog, an empty space between two objects, a doorway, a patch of light, a different color, or simply an area with less visual information. The important part is not what creates the pocket, the important part is that the dog has its own space inside the frame.
 

And sometimes moving the dog only half a meter can completely change the photo. Look at what’s directly behind the dog, and especially behind the head. You might have a beautiful location, but if a column, tree, railing, bright sign or another strong element is cutting through the dog's head, your eye suddenly has much more work to do. Move the dog slightly to the left or right and suddenly its head sits inside a clean area. Same dog, same location, same camera settings... completely different separation.
 

Contrast is probably the easiest pocket to recognize. A light dog against a dark background immediately stands out, and a dark dog against something bright does the same thing. But contrast isn't only about brightness. Color can do exactly the same job. A warm-colored dog against a cooler background can separate beautifully, and so can a dog surrounded by relatively neutral colors when there’s nothing else in the frame competing with its color. Light can create another pocket. Sometimes the background is busy, but one area is darker than everything around it, put a bright dog there and suddenly that messy background becomes useful. And sometimes the best pocket is simply... nothing. A gap between two buildings, an empty part of a wall, an opening between trees, a clean piece of sky. If there’s less information behind the dog, there’s less competition for your attention.
 

This becomes even more important when the dog is small in the frame. One of the most natural things in dog photography is to get closer. The dog is the subject, so we want it big, clear and impressive. That’s exactly what I do in most of my photos too, but sometimes moving farther away can actually give the dog much more presence.
 

In the photo with the wolfdog(see below), I wanted the huge columns and all that space above him. When he lifts his head and howls into that enormous space, the height almost lets me show you the echo of the howl without you actually hearing anything. From closer up, I would have a wolfdog lifting his head. From back there, I have the whole scene. But once I made him that small, his position became much more important. I needed a pocket where he wouldn't disappear, so I placed him against a relatively clean, darker area. Even though he takes up a tiny part of the frame, your eye still finds him immediately. Put a white dog at exactly the same size against one of those bright white columns and suddenly the whole thing works very differently.
 

Think about a Hollywood movie. The star might fill the screen for most of it, but when they arrive at a huge canyon, a massive city or some crazy landscape, sometimes the camera pulls way back just to show us how big the world around them really is. They’re still the star, they just don’t have to be the biggest thing in the frame. Of course I’m not going to give a client an entire gallery where they need a magnifying glass to find their dog. Frames like these are usually the exceptions, when the location really deserves to become part of the story.
 

So next time you photograph, don't only ask yourself: “How blurry can I make the background?” Look through the viewfinder and ask: “Where is my pocket?” Look for contrast, light, color and empty spaces, and especially look at what’s directly behind the dog's head. Then move. Move yourself 20 centimeters, move the dog half a meter, get lower, go higher, take one step to the side. Sometimes the difference between a messy background and perfect separation is ridiculously small... and once you start seeing those pockets, it becomes very difficult to stop seeing them.

Can you spot the “pocket” I used in the photo of Maki at the top of the page now?