Photographing Black dogs (and cats)

I took this one 13 years ago with 20D and EF 400 f/5.6L He was in the back of a pick-up truck at my son's little league game.

Suzi. Our black Belgian Shepherd. (Intruder beware!)
(I have previously posted in the black/white thread section but it seems appropriate here as well.)
Soft daylight exposure on 35mm film.

Photo from Ray.Petri's gallery.
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Photo from Ray.Petri's gallery.
Image hosted by forum (962981)

The first step in learning how to photograph black dogs well is learning not to expose to the color of fur. Instead, what you want to do is manually expose to the highlights or sheen in the fur. By focusing just on the details your dog will look healthier and your photos will be much much crisper.

If you're looking at a shot and the dog's coat doesn't have a shine, you're lighting the scene wrong. Either move your light source, move your subject relation to your light source, or use a reflector (or key light) to pickup snout and eye details.

I've attached a couple examples of what I mean.

The dog with the crown is from my whimsical dog portrait series Paper Hats. Note, there is some mirroring going on in this image to better highlight the effect I'm referencing. Capturing just the highlights of the fur sheen he appears black, with minimal color distortion or noise in the shadows. But the contours of his jaw and snout are still clearly visible.

The bully puppy is from a composite image I created for a local nonprofit rescue, Bella's Bully Buddies. Despite being a relatively cluttered scene, the contours of this pup's arms, ears and nose all remain prominent - without the aid of contrast inducing color. She was a black dog, she should appear black in the photo. But that doesn't mean you can't capture detail. Again, you just need to focus on capturing the detail.

Hope that helps!

Nice picture and cute dogs.

Wet fur sure helps, as does having the light come from behind you.
Also, I tend to overexpose the surroundings a bit, and if needed tone that down in post a little bit.

Photo from Max_S's gallery.
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Manual exposure and quite a bit of trial and error. Thank goodness for digital photography, trying to expose for a pup who won't stay still on film must be a nightmare.

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He's a handsome boy

Thats an amazing pic. I'm going to have to get some different backdrops and material for them to stand on. I now have doodles to photograph too and their coloring is different but I still have chocolate and black labs. https://valleydoodles.​com

Nibblet and Stupid
New lens and they were very accommodating