How to take good pictures of Black Dogs

[shellyk]

We took our Newf and Lab both black for photos with Santa. I was hoping a professional photographer would be able to get good clear shots of black dogs. I don't seem to be able to get the right brightness or contrast and they always seem to be lost in shadows. We got the photos - uh, hmm, not so good. We played with them but it was either a clear shot of the dogs and overly bright washed out Santa or the dogs obscured in shadow. Of course we chose the clear shots of the dogs - you've seen one Santa you've seen them all - right?

So what is the trick to taking photos of black dogs?

 

[Jeannie]

Use flash

 

[Puppypeoplenj]

I've heard something about using a grey card, when I tried to figure this out through google. Can any photography experts comment?

 

[Jeannie]

An 18% gray card helps you set a custom white balance. This is so your pictures will be white if you are under different lights like florescent which can cause your photos to have a blue tint. It has to do with the kelvins or temperature of the light.

Some brands of camera you can use white paper some the gray card. Normally you take a photo of the card or paper, then use the camera settings to set the custom white balance.

IMO this has nothing to do with bringing out a black dog in a photograph. The reason the dog is too dark is because the camera will average the brightness of the photo. Especially if you have your camera in auto mode. Using a flash is the simplest solution. Or you can up your exposure a stop but then you risk blowing out the rest of the photo. Using your flash in this manner is called fill flash or forced flash. It is mostly used when the subject is dark or to eliminate shadows on a bright sunny day.

 

[Jager's Mom]

A light behing them and a flash in front of them?

 

[Jeannie]

A light behing them and a flash in front of them?

You could but you don't want the back light to be too bright. It can wash out the photo. If you used a back light then bounced the flash off the ceiling it could have an interesting effect.

 

[R Taft]

I have my dogs facing light............I think on average that gives me pretty good pics. I also use the flash, it actually makes them look really shiny

I had a HUGE failure last weekend for my Christmas shoot (on again this weekend). The weather was cloudy and I shot into the sun, with a lot of water reflection....dark dogs and no way to fix , even in raw ..should have checked better whilst we were doing it