How to Photgraph a BLACK dog?

Any tips please?

The only way i find is to use flash which makes him all shiny? I'd prefer not to use flash, but then you can't see him very well.

Cheers.

who needs flash when u have the sun

Oh Manguish that is something I have trouble with too, you can't get detail on a black dog, use strong light and the dog looks polished, go easy on the light and you can't sort one feature from another. Lets hope someone has an answer.

This is one of my best efforts - and I am not very happy with it.


Forgot to say taken with the compact in the shade in Spain.

When shooting against a white background, your camera will automatically underexpose because it is tricked into thinking there is more light than there really is. For the white to appear white you will need to adjust the cameras exposure setting. (overexpose using your EV control) Take the metering reading from the dog, lock your exposure/focus control, recompose and shoot. front lighting from natural light will also help.

I've a few hundered dog pics in this set which include some of Breagh (Black Lab X Pointer) the shiniest dog in the world. Some are good others not so good.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dinners...7601846185945/

Feel free to have a nosey as you will also get the camera settings.

Here's my shiny girlie

You can imagine the trouble I have had in the past trying to get decent images of Lucy my black lab, alongside my practically all white springer and clumber.

Nightmare!!!!!!!!!

Steve

In my experience I find it best to take shots of black dogs on days that have some cloud cover which gives a diffused light rather than that of a bright sunny day. Sadly however you sometimes can't pick and choose the days you shoot on and my have to shoot in difficult light conditions.

I try to use spot metering, focusing on the dog itself. What you have to remember is that your camera metering system will be trying to obtain an 18% grey colour so when you take a reading from a black dog the metering will overexpose to try and give you an 18% grey dog, so you have to override the metering and give an extra 1 or 2 stop underexposure.

But better still is to buy an handheld ambient exposure meter. Because this does not read a reflected light to determine exposure it is not fooled by the subject you are taking the picture of but actually gives you the amount of light there is. Not the best option in fast changing light conditions though.

Steve