When taking portraits of a pet, most of the time the goal is make the animal look as adorable as possible. This is either to get your friends go “Aww!” on social media if the pet is yours, or to please a client who is paying you to photograph their beloved cat, dog, or goldfish.

We all strive to capture images that grab attention, or as one pro puts it, “leap off the page and immediately connect with the viewer.” If that sounds like a recipe for success, check out the secret sauce in the tutorial below.

An educator since the early 1960s, Jerry Uelsmann began assembling his photographs from multiple negatives decades before digital tools like Photoshop were available. Using as many as seven enlargers to expose a single print, his darkroom skills allowed him to create evocative images that combined the realism of photography and the fluidity of our dreams.

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