20 toughest photo subjects

James Paterson

James is an award-winning journalist, photographer, editor and trainer. His work has appeared in countless magazines and books, and in 2014 he was appointed editor of Practical Photoshop magazine. His subjects range from portraits to landscapes, architecture and underwater scenes. For more details visit www.patersonphotos.com.

1 Pets

Domestic pets can be a joy to photograph, but they can also be tricky subjects. As with photos of people, a wide aperture in combination with a focal length of 50mm or more is a good choice, as it lets you blur out the background. Be sure to focus precisely on the eyes, as these are the most important feature in any portrait – human or animal. It helps enormously if you have someone with you to arrange the animals and grab their attention.

2 Children

Depending on their mood, children can be the best or worst of subjects to photograph. If you can make the shoot fun and act like a big kid yourself, then