INTERNATIONAL PET PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR AWARDS

Free Pet Photography Resources

Start here with free daily tips

Begin your journey with 100 bite sized ways to improve your pet photography. Delivered daily.

Get over 3 months worth of daily tips, for free!

Topics include working with light, obtaining expression, camera setting tips, composition, using the location, dog handling tricks – and so much more. Delivered direct to your inbox so you can read and absorb straight away (no homework required).

Recent Blog Posts

Editing Toolbox - Workflow Hack: How to Use Lightroom's Flags, Rati...

Mar 17, 2023

Unleashed Edit: Oliver in Spain (speed edit version)

Mar 17, 2023

Editing Toolbox - Workflow Hack: Creating a Custom Filename Templat...

Mar 10, 2023

Keep up to date with all the latest free resources from Unleashed Education on the blog. This is where you'll find weekly editing videos, how-to guides, pet photography tips and all the latest news.

Visit the Blog

Behind the Scenes Videos

Fun videos showing what goes on behind the scenes at real pet photography sessions!
Behind the Scenes with Ben and Juniper

With Charlotte Reeves

Just a fun little "behind the scenes" peek into what goes on at a dog photography session at the beach with two gorgeous pups - Ben the Border Collie and Juniper the Australian Shepherd.

Watch Video
Taking Amazing Pet Portraits in Bad Weather

With Craig Turner-Bullock

The weather can play havoc with our schedules sometimes, especially when clients expect sun-drenched, backlit, bright and vibrant images. But sometimes, it's good to break the mould and push your creativity in less than ideal circumstances.

Watch Video
Photographing a Camera Shy Dog

With Charlotte Reeves

This behind the scenes video covers the process Charlotte uses for working with a dog that has an aversion to cameras, to help them overcome their fear and see it as a positive instead!

Watch Video

Does shooting on Manual Exposure scare you?

Learning to shoot in Manual can be daunting, so watch this excellent learning resource for pet photographers!

Join Charlotte Reeves as she makes an intimidating concept simple and easy to follow. If you struggle to understand or shoot with manual exposure, this video is for you!

"Complicated concepts broken down into easy to understand steps, with beautiful examples. Excellent as always!" - Jacqui Jensen-Roy

Get the free Live Call Replay: Simplifying Manual Exposure

Free Pet Photography Guides

In-depth, value-packed pet photography guides direct from the blog.
7 Steps to Capturing Amazing "Run to Me" Dog Action Photos

By Charlotte Reeves

Going beyond just camera settings, these steps are all essential pieces of the puzzle when shooting these awesome "run to me" style action shots, helping you create that one perfect photo to wow your audience!

Read Now
13 Elements of Composition for Pet Photographers

By Charlotte Reeves

Taking your photography up a notch means understanding and using some common, but often overlooked, elements of composition. These tips range from the classic rule of thirds to the more obscure.

Read Now
The Ultimate Guide to Back Button Focus for Pet Photographers

By Charlotte Reeves

Though not a magical way of getting all your images in perfect focus, using the back button to focus is a technique with many advantages specifically for pet photographers.

Read Now
How to Train Your Dog Model in 5 Easy Steps

By Charlotte Reeves

These 5 essential training tips will get you off on the correct foot when starting fresh with a new muse, or back on track with photographing your own dogs!

Read Now
8 Tips for Capturing Creative Cat Photos

By Charlotte Reeves

Discover my best tips for successfully capturing amazing shots of cats, working with their individual traits to capture beautiful images focusing on their inherent beauty and unique personalities.

Read Now
10 Essential Tips for Beautiful Black Dogs

By Charlotte Reeves

You'll be capturing gorgeous shots of black dogs in no time with these ten handy tips, focusing on lighting, choosing backgrounds and dealing with colour casts.

Read Now
12 Tips for Working with Pets and their People

By Charlotte Reeves

There will come a time when you need to photograph your furry subject's humans - knowing what to say, how to pose and what settings to use is vital info that you won't find anywhere else.

Read Now
7 Tips for Photographing Puppies

By Charlotte Reeves

As tricky as it can be to obtain great images of dogs, capturing awesome shots of puppies is often even more challenging. Here are my top 7 tips to help you when photographing puppies!

Read Now
9 Ways to Rock Your Urban Dog Photography Sessions

By Charlotte Reeves

I take you through super helpful tips for working in busy locations, finding good places to shoot, working with reduced and complex lighting and minimising clutter and distractions.

Read Now
Top 8 Tips for Getting Perfect Insta Worthy Pet Pics Everytime

By Craig Turner-Bullock

With most households being home to at least one pet, it’s unsurprising to see the rising popularity of Instagram accounts made specifically for our little friends. Craig has some great tips for taking insta-worthy shots of your pet!

Read Now
The Best Lens for Outdoor Natural Light Dog Photography

By Charlotte Reeves

Instead of asking "What's the best lens for dog photography?" - instead consider the question - "What's the MOST USEFUL lens for dog photography?"

Read Now
5 Essential Items for Pet Photographers

By Charlotte Reeves

Pet photography is a super specialised field and with that comes specialised equipment and tools of the trade. Find out the five things I just couldn't live without as a professional pet photographer.

Read Now

Free Editing Guides

Free guides focusing on developing your pet photography editing skills.
10 Most Common Pet Photography Editing Mistakes

By Charlotte Reeves

After many years of reviewing my student's images during portfolio reviews and critiques, I decided to share the top 10 mistakes I see and also how to fix them.

Read Now
10 Tips for Setting Perfect White Balance

By Charlotte Reeves

If you’re like most pet photographers, at some point you’ve struggled with setting the correct white balance of your images in the editing stage. 

Read Now

Free Editing Toolbox Videos

Every week, Charlotte and Craig create a bite-sized (5-10 minute) editing tutorial on a specific task in Adobe Lightroom Classic or Adobe Photoshop. These videos are designed to give you an extra skill or technique you can add to your editing toolbox!
How to Use Lightroom's Flags, Ratings and Colour Labels

With Craig Turner-Bullock

In this week's Editing Toolbox video, I'll take you through how to use and apply Flags, Stars, and Colour Labels, as well as share my own system for using these tools.

Watch Video
Workflow Hack: Creating a Custom Filename Template in Lightroom

With Charlotte Reeves

In this Editing Toolbox video, I'll show you how you can set up a custom filename template for Lightroom to use as part of the import process.

Watch Video
Why Taking Photos Without Dogs Can Save your Dog Photos

With Craig Turner-Bullock

In this Editing Toolbox video, Craig is going to talk about how empty frames without the dog can save your images, some good habits to get into when you're out on a shoot and he'll show you exactly how easy removing people is if you've shot a blank frame.

Watch Video
Removing a Red Colour Cast from the Shadows in Lightroom 

With Charlotte Reeves

In this Editing Toolbox video, Charlotte will show you a super quick and easy way to get rid of red in the shadows in Lightroom (making use of the RAW data), using the Tone Curve.

Watch Video
Locating Lost Files & Folders in Lightroom

With Craig Turner-Bullock

In this week's Editing Toolbox, Craig is going to go through the most common reasons Lightroom can't access files and folders.

Watch Video
Setting White Balance with One Click in Lightroom

With Charlotte Reeves

In this Editing Toolbox video, Charlotte shares one of her favourite tools in Lightroom that you can use if your subject has some white fur receiving clean light - the White Balance Selector.

Watch Video
Rescuing Blurry Images with Topaz

With Craig Turner-Bullock

In this Editing Toolbox, Craig will show you how he likes to use Topaz and Photoshop combined to get the best results.

Watch Video
The Ins and Outs of Zooming

With Craig Turner-Bullock

In this week's Editing Toolbox, Craig will be delving in to the zoom tools and shortcuts in both Lightroom and Photoshop.

Watch Video
Improving the Look of Blown-out Bokeh in Backlit Shots

With Charlotte Reeves

In this Editing Toolbox video, Charlotte will show you a quick technique for minimising areas of blown-out bokeh in the background of backlit shots. 

Watch Video
Setting a Default Camera Profile on Import in Lightroom

With Charlotte Reeves

In this Editing Toolbox video, I'll help you find out how to apply a default Camera Profile on Import. Plus, if you shoot with different camera bodies and prefer a different profile for each, you can override the default import preset for that model only.

Watch Video
Managing and Merging Lightroom Catalogues

With Craig Turner-Bullock

In this week's Editing Toolbox, I'll show you how I use Lightroom catalogues, I believe one master catalogue is the best and most efficient way to save, edit and find images.

Watch Video
Enlarging Your Images in Photoshop to Print BIG

With Charlotte Reeves

In this Editing Toolbox video, I will show you how you can find out exactly how big you can print with NO loss of quality.

Watch Video
What Are XMP Files & Why MIght They Be Useful?

With Craig Turner-Bullock

In this week's Editing Toolbox, I'll be explaining what XMP files do as well going through a few scenarios where having them in addition to a Lightroom catalogue might be useful.

Watch Video
Using Reference Mode in Lightroom to Perfectly Match Edits

With Charlotte Reeves

In this Editing Toolbox video, I will show you the awesome mode in Lightroom you need to know about to help speed up your editing workflow and get your images looking consistent.

Watch Video
How To Batch Process Your Christmas Mini Sessions

With Craig Turner-Bullock

In this Editing Toolbox video, I'm sharing a really quick tip on how to make your Christmas mini sessions or Santa Photos editing as speedy as possible.

Watch Video
Awesome Subject Selection with One Setting in Photoshop

With Charlotte Reeves

In this Editing Toolbox video, I'll show you a very useful subject selection tip in a recent update in Photoshop!

Watch Video
The Best Way to Use Topaz for Photoshop

With Craig Turner-Bullock

In this week's Editing Toolbox, Craig's going to show you how to use Topaz most effectively to give you the most amazing results you won't believe!

Watch Video
Super Quick Object Selection and Removal in Photoshop

With Charlotte Reeves

In this Editing Toolbox video, I'll show you how to use the Object Selection tool to help you cut down your editing time, big time!

Watch Video
How to Make Multiple Dogs Eyes Sparkle

With Craig Turner-Bullock

In this week's Editing Toolbox, I'll take you through my method of making multiple dogs eyes sparkle on an image of 7 chihuahuas!

Watch Video
Unleashing Lightroom 12.0 for Pet Photographers

With Charlotte Reeves

In this Editing Toolbox, I will guide you through some new changes and features in Adobe Lightroom 12.0.

Watch Video
How to Balance Shadows with Highlights

With Craig Turner-Bullock

In this Editing Toolbox, I'm working on an image I took on the island of Guernsey with Cody the Cocker Spaniel.

Watch Video
How to Rescue a Flared-out Photo

With Charlotte Reeves

In this Editing Toolbox, I will show you how to fix that flared-out image instead of giving up and tossing it out!

Watch Video
What's This Weird Fringing and How Can I Fix It?

With Craig Turner-Bullock

In this Editing Toolbox, I will show you how to fix the weird fringing that appears on the edges between the foreground and the sky.

Watch Video
Photoshop Selection Tool Secrets

With Charlotte Reeves

In this Editing Toolbox, I'll share a crucial subject selection tip and show how to get a more Lightroom-like selection experience, right in Photoshop.

Watch Video
The Worst Way to Fix Colour Casts and How to Do it Properly

With Craig Turner-Bullock

In this Editing Toolbox, I will show you a couple of techniques in Photoshop, so you can leave those saturation sliders alone in the future and have realistic coloured pets in your images.

Watch Video
How to Cull Your Pet Photos Super Fast in Lightroom

With Charlotte Reeves

In this Editing Toolbox, I take you through the process I use to choose my final images (and reject unwanted images) using Lightroom's flagging system.

Watch Video
How to Change the Colour of Bright Dog Collars

With Craig Turner-Bullock

In this Editing Toolbox, I'm sharing a quick trick to help you deal with collars that really distract you in all their colourful brightness to help you bring more harmony to the image.

Watch Video
Using Gradients in Lightroom to Paint with Light

With Charlotte Reeves

In this week's slightly-longer-than-normal Editing Toolbox video, Charlotte takes you through how she uses masks in Lightroom, applying gradients, brushes and subject selections, to improve the look and feel of the image.

Watch Video
A Quick Hack for Fixing White Balance

With Craig Turner-Bullock

In this Editing Toolbox video, I have a quick and easy white balance hack for you in Adobe Lightroom.

Watch Video
Using Camera Profiles in Lightroom

With Charlotte Reeves

Find out how to browse, apply and organise profiles in Lightroom so you can quickly and easily choose the perfect profile to suit your style of pet photography.

Watch Video
3 Fab Ways to Use Liquify for Dog Photography

With Craig Turner-Bullock

In this Editing Toolbox video, I'll show you exactly how to use Liquify in Photoshop.

Watch Video
Workflow Hack: Best Practices for Cropping

With Charlotte Reeves

In this Editing Toolbox video, I'll be covering the best practices for cropping in Lightroom and Photoshop (with a fairly extensive side-rant about aspect ratios).

Watch Video
How to Fix Banding in the Sky

With Craig Turner-Bullock

In this Editing Toolbox video, I'm sharing a few tips for the best shooting and editing practices to help prevent banding.

Watch Video
Workflow Hack: How to Swap Between Lightroom and Photoshop

With Charlotte Reeves

In this video, I'm going to give you a brief rundown of my own personal workflow, showing you how to get from the RAW file, to Photoshop, back to Lightroom (and then maybe back into Photoshop to fix up that thing you forgot to fix the first time 🙈).

Watch Video
De-mystifying the Colour Grading Tool

With Craig Turner-Bullock

In this Editing Toolbox, I'll give you a tour of the controls and show you how to use the colour grading adjustments.

Watch Video
Creating Export Presets in Lightroom

With Charlotte Reeves

In this video, I'll show you how I export images for editing in Photoshop (a much better way than just Command + E) - the settings I use for Facebook - and most importantly, how to set up, save, update and organise your own Export Presets.

Watch Video
Correcting Colour Casts on Grey/Blue Dogs

With Craig Turner-Bullock

In this weeks Editing Toolbox video, I'm going to show you how to correct these colour casts in Photoshop that'll get the fur looking exactly as it should.

Watch Video
Working with Layers for Pet Photographers (5 Parts)

Part 5: Organising Layers

With Charlotte Reeves

In this fifth and final episode, we tie up a few loose ends. 

Watch Video
How to Use and Apply Cropping Tool Overlays

With Craig Turner-Bullock

In this Editing Toolbox video, Craig takes you through how to access the overlays in both programmes, what the overlays are for, what compositional rules they relate to and how to apply them to your images.

Watch Video
Working with Layers for Pet Photographers (5 Parts)

Part 4: Layer Masks

With Charlotte Reeves

In this fourth episode, we tackle a much-requested topic - how to work with masks in Photoshop.

Watch Video
Stitching Images to Make a Panorama

With Craig Turner-Bullock

In this Editing Toolbox video, I'll show you how to get started with stitching images in Photoshop to create a panorama.

Watch Video
Working with Layers for Pet Photographers (5 Parts)

Part 3: Opacity and Blending Modes

With Charlotte Reeves

In this third episode, we'll be discovering how to get layers interacting with each other using opacity and blending modes.

Watch Video
Using Photoshop's Auto Align to Remove Objects

With Craig Turner-Bullock

In this Editing Toolbox, I'm showing you a very simple trick that will be an absolute lifesaver, if you plan for it a little in advance.

Watch Video
Working with Layers for Pet Photographers (5 Parts)

Part 2: Managing Layers

With Charlotte Reeves

This second episode is all about managing layers - changing visibility, moving them around, naming them and using groups to organise them.

Watch Video
How to Identify and Remove Chromatic Aberration

With Craig Turner-Bullock

In this Editing Toolbox video, I'll explain everything and show you some super simple ways of tackling Chromatic Aberration in Adobe Lightroom.

Watch Video
Working with Layers for Pet Photographers (5 Parts)

Part 1: Introduction to Layers

With Charlotte Reeves

In this first episode, I cover what layers actually are, how they work (including a super helpful analogy) and the different types of layers that it's possible to create.

Watch Video
How To Create Time-Saving Photoshop Actions

With Craig Turner-Bullock

In this Editing Toolbox video, I'm going to show you how to create an action. 

Watch Video
Rescuing Slightly Out-Of-Focus Eyes with Topaz

With Charlotte Reeves

My technique for fixing slightly out-of-focus eyes using Topaz Labs Sharpen AI in Photoshop is one you definitely need to add to your editing toolbox.

Watch Video
Creating Mist & Fog to Add Atmosphere

With Craig Turner-Bullock

In this editing toolbox video, I’ll show you how to create mist to add atmosphere to an image using Photoshop.

Watch Video
Creating a Matte-look Image Using Gradient Maps

With Charlotte Reeves

Here's a quick video showing you my preferred method for creating this looks-like-film, low contrast feel in Photoshop using a Gradient Map

Watch Video
Creating an Animated GIF of Your Dog Running

With Craig Turner-Bullock

In this video, we’re taking several shots from an action sequence and turning them into an animated GIF.

Watch Video
Creating a Golden Glow in Lightroom

With Charlotte Reeves

A great little technique to add to your editing toolbox when your backlit images need just a bit more warmth and sparkle.

Watch Video
Changing Seasons

With Craig Turner-Bullock

In this video I’m going to show you how you can quickly change the season in Lightroom.

Watch Video
Leash Removal Tips for Photoshop

With Charlotte Reeves

Leash removal is probably the most common editing task that pet photographers do on a daily basis, but is the technique you're currently using the most efficient one?

Watch Video
How to Fix Cataracts in Photoshop

With Craig Turner-Bullock

In this video Craig shows you a couple of quick tricks for correcting doggy cataracts.

Watch Video
Quickly Removing Grass Distractions in Photoshop

With Charlotte Reeves

In this video Charlotte shows you exactly how to remove all the bits of grass in with only two steps.

Watch Video
Changing the Colour of a Distraction

With Charlotte Reeves

In this video I'll show you a super easy technique for changing the colour of the distraction, without actually having to remove the object completely.

Watch Video
Correcting Perspective Distortion in Lightroom

With Craig Turner-Bullock

In this video I’m going to show you a quick trick to correct perspective distortion in Lightroom so you can say goodbye to those converging buildings!

Watch Video
Non-Destructive Dodging & Burning

With Craig Turner-Bullock

In this video I’m going to show you a quick non-destructive technique for dodging and burning in Photoshop.

Watch Video
Quick Head Swap

With Charlotte Reeves

In this video, I share my technique for quickly and easily performing a simple head swap using a very handy feature of Photoshop.

Watch Video
Extending the Image Canvas to Improve Composition

With Craig Turner-Bullock

In this quick Photoshop tutorial, Craig shares a couple of techniques for extending the image to add more space in to the composition and improve image flow.

Watch Video
Removing Blue from Black Fur in Lightroom

With Charlotte Reeves

I'm sharing a new technique I've discovered for quickly and easily removing a stubborn blue colour cast from black fur, using Lightroom's new masking tools.

Watch Video
Straightening Wonky Horizons in Lightroom and Photoshop

With Craig Turner-Bullock

In this video, I’ll show you a couple of ways you can straighten your horizons in Lightroom and Photoshop.

Watch Video
Removing a Photo Bomber

With Charlotte Reeves

Steal Charlotte's technique for quickly and easily removing a photo-bomber using a little bit of foresight and a super handy feature of Photoshop.

Watch Video
Cleaning Eva's Teeth In Photoshop

With Craig Turner-Bullock

I recently had a special request from a client; to whiten her dog Eva's teeth.

Watch Video
Fixing a Yellow Colour Cast in White Fur

With Charlotte Reeves

Learn how to fix a yellow colour cast in a dog's white fur using masking in Adobe Lightroom.

Watch Video

Join the Edit My Photo Challenges

Each month we run a free editing challenge, where we provide one of our pet photography RAW files for you to edit!

You submit your edit, we choose a winner, then the winner gets one of their images edited by us, which is made into a free editing tutorial.

Opting in below will sign you up for the challenge emails and give you access to the free online hub, so you can:

  • View the current challenge and download the RAW file to edit
  • Submit your challenge image
  • View past challenges and see winners
  • Watch the editing tutorials we've created of past Edit My Photo winners

Please enter your details below to opt in.

Edit My Photo Winners' Edits

As part of the Edit My Photo challenge, we edit a RAW file submitted by the monthly challenge winner. We record our edit and turn it into a free tutorial for you!
Edit My Photo - June 2022

With Craig Turner-Bullock

Jannie Lou was the winner of the May 2022 Edit My Photo challenge in the Unleashed Education community.

Watch Video
Edit My Photo - May 2022

With Charlotte Reeves

Fernanda was the winner of the April 2022 Edit My Photo challenge in the Unleashed Education community.

Watch Video
Edit My Photo - April 2022

With Craig Turner-Bullock

Fernanda was the winner of this month’s Edit My Photo challenge in the Unleashed Education community with her fantastic composite of Lenny & Marley.

Watch Video
Edit My Photo - March 2022

With Charlotte Reeves

Fiona was the winner of this month’s Edit My Photo challenge in the Unleashed Education community, with her lovely clean but also moody edit of Opal at the seaside.

Watch Video
Edit My Photo - February 2022

With Craig Turner-Bullock

Rebecca was the winner of this month’s Edit My Photo challenge in the Unleashed Education community, with her interpretation of my image of Maggie in the Broom flowers.

Watch Video
Edit My Photo - January 2022

With Charlotte Reeves

Elijah was the winner of this month’s Edit My Photo challenge with his classic interpretation of a backlit image of Zephyr.

Watch Video
Edit My Photo - December 2021

With Craig Turner-Bullock

Annabel was the winner of this month’s Edit My Photo challenge in the Unleashed Education community, with her fantastic edit of Roley the Maine Coon.

Watch Video
Edit My Photo - December 2021

With Charlotte Reeves

Kim was the winner of this month’s Edit My Photo challenge in the Unleashed Education community, with her gorgeous pastel edit of June’s action shot at the beach.

Watch Video
Edit My Photo - November 2021

With Craig Turner-Bullock

Ina was the winner of the Edit My Photo challenge for November 2021, Cesar's Hilltop Howl.

Watch Video
Edit My Photo - October 2021

With Charlotte Reeves

Tiffany was the winner of this month’s Edit My Photo challenge in the Unleashed Education community, with her very cleverly done leash removal and collar fix-up of Cleo the Dalmatian.

Watch Video
Edit My Photo - September 2021

With Craig Turner-Bullock

Lydia was the winner of this month’s Edit My Photo challenge in the Unleashed Education community, with her wonderful edit of Charlie jumping for his ball at the beach.

Watch Video
Edit My Photo - August 2021

With Charlotte Reeves

Jacqueline was the winner of the Edit My Photo challenge for June 2021, with her moody and emotional edit of Bijou in the pine forest.

Watch Video
Edit My Photo July 2021

With Craig Turner-Bullock

Amanda was the winner of the Edit My Photo Challenge for May 2021, with her fabulous edit and excellent sky replacement of Tabasco the Border Collie in the hills above Christchurch, New Zealand.

Watch Video
Edit My Photo - June 2021

With Charlotte Reeves

Sherry was the winner of this month’s Edit My Photo challenge, with her technically perfect and sunny edit of Luna and Mae.

Watch Video
Edit My Photo May 2021

With Charlotte Reeves

Astrid was the winner of this month’s Edit My Photo challenge with her amazingly atmospheric edit of Jasper the Beagle.

Watch Video