How to Photograph Your Cattle

By September 4, 2019 June 20th, 2025 Resources, Tips & Tricks
Vintage-style sign

Good pictures of your cattle are important to:

  1. Represent your cattle in advertisements
  2. Email pictures of your cattle to potential buyers
  3. Represent your cattle on your website
  4. Good first impression in sale catalogs
  5. Share photos with friends and others
  6. Personal satisfaction

Camera:

  1. Digital camera
  2. Choose a camera with a fast shutter speed
  3. Camera with rotating view finder

Best weather and time for photos

  1. Lightly overcast day – no shadows, but still enough light
  2. Cool day so cattle will stand out in sunlight and not seek shade
  3. Season when green grass is abundant
  4. Early in day when cattle are finishing morning grazing period
  5. Just before feeding time
  6. Later in day before cattle have moved out for afternoon grazing
  7. When cattle first stand from resting they will urinate and defecate, so give them time
  8. Shaking feed bucket is best attention getting device.  Never put one cube on the ground!!!
  9. Take the picture so the camera is level with the midline of the animals body
  10. Position animal so that animal’s shadow is pointing directly away from the photographer

Positioning cattle

Side view with head turned toward camera or slightly forward of 90 degree, front legs together or slightly apart, rear legs apart with leg closest to camera (near leg) back and leg away from camera (off leg) forward, ears forward, alert appearance, tail down with switch showing, light behind photographer (shadow of animal away from photographer)

A brown Texas Longhorn cow with prominent horns stands in a grassy field, with green trees in the background.
Front legs together, near rear legs back with off rear leg slightly forward

A white and brown speckled Texas Longhorn with large horns standing in a green field.

A brown and white Texas Longhorn cow stands in a grassy field with trees in the background.
Different placement of front legs, rear legs still positioned correctly

Examples of Incorrectly Positioned Cattle

A large, light-colored Texas Longhorn cow with prominent horns standing in a grassy field under a clear blue sky
Cow looks awkward, out of balance, cannot see conformation

A white Texas Longhorn cow with prominent horns stands in a grassy field with trees in the background
Rear legs positioned incorrectly, head down, tail switching; cow looks shortened because legs are camped under her

A large, light-colored Texas Longhorn cow with prominent horns standing in a grassy field with another Longhorn partially visible in the background.
Light is on the wrong side of cow putting shadow on her, head is down, ear is back, poor background

A light-colored Texas Longhorn standing in a grassy field with trees in the background.
Cow is standing in hay bale.

A large, light-colored cattle with prominent horns walks across a grassy field with trees in the background.
Cow is on a mission to get away, light is on the incorrect side, and does not show cow’s features and horns.

A cream-colored Texas Longhorn cow with prominent horns stands in a grassy field.
Please, give her some privacy!

A white Texas Longhorn stands in a grassy field with trees and a fence line in the background under a clear blue sky.
Where did she go?

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

A Texas Longhorn cow with white and brown speckled hide stands in a grassy field with trees in the background.

A white and brown spotted Texas Longhorn stands in a grassy field with trees in the background

A white and brown spotted Texas Longhorn stands in a grassy field under a clear blue sky.

A Texas Longhorn cattle with long horns standing in a grassy field under a clear blue sky.

A white Texas Longhorn cow with brown spots and prominent horns stands in a green field under a clear blue sky.

Which picture do you want representing your heifer in a sale catalog?

Use of photo editing software to improve and correct imperfections in pictures:
(I use Corel PaintShop Pro X4)

Rotate and crop commands: used to straighten picture that is slanted and remove excess back ground to bring subject to the front

A Texas Longhorn cow with long horns stands in a grassy field, with another cow partially visible on the left.

A large brown and white speckled Texas Longhorn cow with prominent long horns standing in a grassy field with water in the background.

 

When you crop a picture be sure “Keep aspect ratio” is selected, otherwise picture will have “stretched” or “shortened” appearance.

A brown and white speckled Texas Longhorn cow with impressive long horns stands in a grassy field next to a body of water under a cloudy sky.

A brown and white speckled Texas Longhorn steer with impressive long horns stands in a grassy field next to a body of water under a cloudy sky.

Clone tool – Can be used to remove unwanted background or objects in picture

A herd of Texas Longhorn cattle with distinctive long horns grazing in a grassy field under a clear blue sky

white and brown Texas Longhorn cow with prominent, wide-spreading horns stands in a grassy field with trees in the background.

DOWNLOAD THIS AS A PDF