Pet Product Photography: How to Shoot for the $150B Pet Industry

# Pet Product Photography: How to Shoot for the $150B Pet Industry

Quick Answer: Professional pet product photography costs $800-$3,000 for a standard DTC brand shoot depending on whether live animals are included, the number of SKUs, and required lifestyle complexity. The US pet industry reached $150 billion in 2024 (American Pet Products Association) and is forecast to grow 6.1% annually through 2030. With 66% of US households owning a pet, the category produces an enormous volume of purchasing decisions -- almost all of them influenced by visual content.

The client sent three products: a ceramic dog bowl, a woven leash, and a premium dog bed. "We want them to look elevated," she said. "Like something you'd see in a Kinfolk editorial."

I'd been shooting product for years. I'd never specifically styled for the pet category. The bowl was fine -- it's a bowl, I know how to shoot bowls. The leash was manageable. The bed was the challenge.

A $280 dog bed needs to communicate three things simultaneously: quality of materials, scale appropriate to the specific target dog size, and the promise that a dog will actually use it. That last part is impossible to fake in product photography alone, but it can be implied -- through the right styling, the right scale reference, the right surface context.

That's pet product photography in a sentence. The products serve an audience that can't evaluate quality rationally, purchased by humans who are deeply emotionally invested in that audience's wellbeing and happiness. The photography has to bridge those two realities.

The Scale of the Pet Industry -- and What It Means Visually

The $150 billion figure is worth sitting with for a second. Pet industry spending has grown every single year for the past three decades, including through every recession (American Pet Products Association, 2024). Pet owners are remarkably resistant to trading down.

That means the category has attracted serious brand investment, serious design talent, and serious visual expectations. The mid-range of the pet market -- $30-80 products -- now looks like the premium end looked five years ago. The actual premium end looks like human luxury goods.

For photographers and brands alike, this means the quality bar for pet product photography has risen significantly. An iPhone snapshot of a dog bowl on a wood floor doesn't compete with the brands that have invested in professional imagery. And unlike some categories where professional photography is a nice-to-have, pet product photography on the wrong side of that quality gap loses sales immediately.

The Two Categories of Pet Product Photography

Pet product photography splits into two distinct disciplines that require different skill sets and setups.

Product-Only Shots

Bowls, beds, leashes, collars, toys, supplements, grooming products, food packaging -- all the physical objects that make up the pet product landscape, shot without a live animal present.

This is straightforward commercial product photography with one wrinkle: scale. Pet products exist in multiple size variants (XS through XL) and the visual communication of appropriate scale matters to buyers. A large breed owner looking at a "large" dog collar needs the image to communicate "large" without having to read the specs. This is handled through prop styling and context clues -- a reference object in the frame, a lifestyle environment that implies scale.

Lifestyle Shots With Animals

The emotional core of pet product marketing. A golden retriever sleeping peacefully in the premium dog bed. A cat ignoring the expensive cat tree in a way that is somehow charming and relatable. A dog in a well-fitted harness looking alert and happy on a trail.

These shots are more complex, more expensive, and more valuable than any product-only image. When pet product brands show their products in use -- specifically, with happy, healthy animals looking like the product is working -- conversion rates increase significantly. One study of pet product e-commerce listings found that listings with animal lifestyle imagery had 34% higher add-to-cart rates than product-only listings (Jungle Scout, 2024).

Working With Animals on Set

If you're a brand considering lifestyle photography with your actual target animal, there are logistics to understand.

Professional animal handlers are the right call for most commercial pet photography work. A handler brings trained animals who are comfortable on set, manages safety for both the animal and the crew, and can direct an animal's attention and behavior in ways that a regular dog owner simply cannot -- regardless of how well-behaved their dog is at home.

Trained animals cost $500-$1,500 per day depending on species and specific training. For most DTC pet brands, this is cost-effective relative to the value of the content produced.

If you're using the founder's pet or a client-supplied animal, understand that the shoot will take longer and produce fewer usable frames. That's not a criticism -- some of the best pet brand photography uses the founders' actual animals because the authentic relationship reads on camera. But budget time accordingly.

The Patience Factor

Animal photography requires patience that doesn't have an equivalent in other commercial categories. The bowl will sit exactly where you put it for eight hours. The golden retriever will not. You're waiting for the moment when the animal's natural behavior aligns with the shot you need -- and that moment may come quickly or it may take forty-five minutes.

Good pet photography budgets for that uncertainty. A collar shoot that would take 30 minutes without an animal might take 2 hours with one. That's not inefficiency -- it's the category's reality.

What Makes Great Pet Product Imagery

Authenticity of Expression

Pet owners can instantly detect when an animal looks stressed, over-handled, or trained into an unnatural position. The best pet product photography looks like the animal is having a good time -- because in the best cases, they are.

This means working with animals in ways that keep them comfortable. Frequent breaks. Positive reinforcement. Patience when they don't hit the mark. The effort to get a natural expression is paid back in images that connect emotionally with pet owners in a way that obviously staged shots never do.

Texture and Material Communication

Premium pet products -- ceramic bowls, woven accessories, premium beds with specific fabric compositions -- need the same material storytelling that luxury product photography relies on. The weave pattern of a cotton-canvas collar communicates quality. The density of a memory-foam dog bed communicates comfort. Getting close enough to show these details is often the difference between a product that reads as premium and one that reads as generic.

Color Coordination

Pet product photography for lifestyle shots requires thinking about animal coloring in relation to product color. A light-colored leash against a white Samoyed disappears. A bright orange collar against a rust-colored dog blends. These are styling decisions that matter for the final image's visual clarity, and they require pre-production thought rather than improvisation on set.

What Pet Product Photography Costs

For a product-only shoot covering a full line (6-10 SKUs, 3-4 images per SKU): $1,200-$2,500.

For a lifestyle shoot including a trained animal for a half-day: $2,000-$4,000 including animal handler fees.

For a comprehensive brand shoot with both product-only and lifestyle content across a full product line: $3,500-$6,000.

I shoot for DTC pet brands, pet food companies, and emerging accessory brands. You can see examples of this work in the portfolio. If you're launching a new pet product line or ready to upgrade your existing imagery, reach out here.