The Modern Portrait

The Modern Portrait is the one style in the catalogue that does not dress your pet as anything. There is no robe, no crown, no helmet and no joke. There is a seamless warm grey backdrop, one large soft light placed high and to the left, and an animal looking straight down the lens.

That restraint is the whole point. Costume styles work by contrast: the gap between a small dog and imperial regalia is what makes people laugh. This works the opposite way. It takes the face you already love and gives it the treatment normally reserved for a person sitting for a professional headshot: shallow depth of field, the eyes and the nose tack sharp, the far shoulder falling gently out of focus, a clean catchlight in each eye, and every whisker and hair resolved.

It suits pets whose expression is the thing you would miss most. Older animals photograph especially well in it, because the light finds the grey around a muzzle rather than hiding it.

As a gift it is the safe one, in the best sense. Nobody has to be in on a joke to love it, and it hangs in a living room without explaining itself. It is also the style people order for themselves after buying a costume portrait for somebody else.