Samsung Pet Photography: Settings for Dogs and Cats

A good pet photo on a Galaxy means a fast enough shutter speed for the pet, focus on the eye, and holding the Galaxy at the pet’s eye level. Your Galaxy doesn’t have a pet mode, so it’s up to you to nail those three things.

Then it’s just a matter of getting your pet to look at you, which is often the trickiest part!

Pet settings by situation

One way to get the 1/500s and 1/1000s shutter speeds is by using the Camera Assistant app, which lets you add a minimum shutter speed in Photo mode on Samsung phones with One UI 8.5 or newer. The shutter speed options listed by SamMobile are 1/1000, 1/500, 1/120 and 1/30 of a second.

Another option is to shoot in Pro mode and manually set the shutter speed, but note that in Samsung’s Pro mode you’ll also have to set the ISO, as it won’t stay on Auto if you manually adjust the shutter speed.

How to photograph a pet, step by step

1. 1

   Wipe the lens

   Make sure your camera lens is clean, as pets are cuddly and noses end up pressed up against phones! Smudges will haze your images, so clean with a soft cloth.

2. 2

   Get down to the pet's level

   Get down on the floor, sitting or lying, and shoot with the camera/phone at the level of your pet’s eyes. Shooting from standing height minimises the size of your pet and you’ll mostly get pictures of the floor!

3. 3

   Tap the nearest eye

   Tap the eye nearest the lens to focus. In Camera settings > General, there’s an option for Tracking auto focus (per Samsung’s S25 and S26 support pages), which keeps a moving subject in focus, but on a Galaxy S25 Ultra (running One UI 9, checked in November 2026), it said that feature wasn’t available when taking pictures in Photo mode. So just remember to tap the eye again if your pet moves away from the area you initially tapped.

4. 4

   Get their attention next to the lens

   Hold a squeaky toy or treat just above the level of the phone, or ask someone to stand behind you and call your pet, so your pet will lift its head, put its ears up and look into the camera.

5. 5

   Shoot a burst

   Swipe down on the shutter button all the way to the bottom of the screen and keep holding it there. If you swipe the shutter button down to take a burst of photos, make sure this is what happens (on the Galaxy S25 Ultra with One UI 9 this option is located in Camera Assistant), since if you keep your finger pressed down on the shutter button it will start recording a video instead.

6. 6

   Check the eyes at full size

   Zoom into the eyes on a few frames before the pet leaves the frame. If the nose is in focus but the eyes are not, you can either tap the eye again or step back a tad.

Our burst mode guide covers how to choose one frame from a burst of images, and the AE/AF lock guide teaches you how to lock focus on a spot your pet keeps returning to.

Is there a pet mode on a Galaxy?

There’s no pet mode on any Galaxy phone right now, as Samsung’s own support pages for the Galaxy S25 series and Galaxy A series list modes including Food and Portrait, but not pets. What you do get is Scene optimizer, which according to Samsung’s support site in Hong Kong includes recognising animals and adjusting photo processing accordingly (on One UI 9 this is known as Scene detection and you’ll find it under Camera settings > Photo enhancer).

As for focusing on your pet’s eye, Samsung doesn’t say anywhere in its Galaxy camera information that its phones can automatically focus on animals’ eyes, so you’d better be prepared to tap on your pet’s eye (and keep on tapping every time it moves!) to get the focus right. Where subject tracking is available, Samsung’s Galaxy S26 user guide warns that it may not work if the subject is too small or moves too much, there’s backlighting or you’re in a dark environment, or the colours of the subject are similar to the background (looking at you, black cats on dark sofas!).

Samsung’s user guide for Portrait mode states that background blur may not be applied properly in certain situations, including when your subject is moving, is thin or is similar in colour to the background. For pets, this means that Portrait mode might be best tried on a stationary pet in good lighting, and you’re likely to notice problems around fur and whiskers. The portrait mode guide covers the blur slider and distances.

Dark fur and white fur

The camera’s exposure assumes an average scene, so shooting a black dog in front of a bright window can cause the window to lose detail, while your dog still remains a featureless black blob. Tap on his face to select it as the metering point, increase the exposure slightly, and turn him so he’s facing a window.

Shooting in bright light can blow out a white cat’s fur, making it look textureless. Tap on its fur to select it as the metering point, then use the exposure slider to decrease the exposure until you start to see detail in its fur. Avoid shooting in direct midday sunlight as much as possible.

Fetch and running dogs

You’ll get better action shots if the sun is at your back, lighting your pet’s face (and hopefully giving a glint in its eye!). Running dogs are the most challenging pet to photograph well, and the setup matters more than the settings. Ideally, get someone to chuck a tennis ball for your pooch to chase. Use the 3x zoom lens and position yourself about five or six metres away from the path your pet will take. Have the ball thrown across your line of vision (say, from left to right) so that your pooch will run past you at a steady distance. Pre-select your zoom before tapping the dog with your finger, and then fire away as your furry friend flies past you, using a burst through the whole run to maximise your chances of getting the elusive shot with all four paws off the ground and ears up.

Don’t forget quieter moments between chases, though. A good old panting grin, or the ball it’s kindly deposited at your feet, makes a great contrast! Subjects that lend themselves to slow motion include a leaping dog going after a ball or shaking off after a swim. Check out our slow motion guide for frame rates and slowing down footage after the fact.

Many of the same problems occur indoors with energetic children as subjects, and our children photography guide covers shutter speeds and timing for them. The shutter speed guide lists additional suggestions for dealing with moving subjects.

Editing pet photos

Tap the pencil icon in Gallery to open the built-in photo editor. Crop the photo so your pet’s eyes or nose point towards the larger side of the cropped photo. Tap the sun icon to fine-tune saturation, brightness and contrast. On newer Samsung phones, Object eraser is included in the list of additional tools you can use to erase items such as dog toys or a cat’s collar tag or lead.

Snapseed’s free Selective tool lets you pinpoint specific areas of a photo, such as your pet’s eyes, and fine-tune saturation, brightness and more. Tap to add a point to each eye and increase brightness. Don’t sharpen fur too much as it can make a soft coat look wiry. Our Lightroom vs Snapseed comparison explains which tools each app gives you free.