P#15 Q4A: How Do You Handle Your Black Dog Photography Shoots?

Exposure, Lighting and Breed

Jenni Bidner: Oh yeah, that is a very common problem: black dog photography. It's actually a three-fold question, because one of the reasons has to do with exposure, one has to do with lighting, and the third is breed specific and has to do with the quality of the dog's coat.

From an exposure point of view, if you're doing a frame-filling shot of a black dog or a frame-filling shot of a white dog, your camera will likely under or over expose the picture. Even though modern cameras are so smart and have such advanced formulas in them, as soon as you fill the frame with black or white they have the tendency to under or over expose.

It's very common to get black pictures where your dog turns black, or white pictures where your dog turns white. That problem is easily solved with exposure compensation. You would use the plus to add light if your picture is too dark and you'd use the minus to subtract light if your picture was too light.

But the real problem -- the worst problem -- with black dog photography is lighting. Everybody wants to put their black dog in the sunlight because it's just so beautiful and the blue sky, and the colors are bright.

It turns the dog into a black mass because you now have a high contrast situation. The cameras simply can't handle detail in the black and in the light parts of the scene.

I really recommend, for both people and dog photography, that you start with pictures in the shade or overcast in the softest light you can find. From there, if you have a creative reason to pull them out into the sun or into more contrasting light, do so.

Another soft lighting situation is window light, where you're not getting direct sunlight beams.

It really makes a big difference; it's nice gentle light on your dog.

It's a Matter of Breeding

Certain dogs, like German Shepherds, look good in absolutely any light. I can flash her, I can take her in the sun, I can put her in a storm -- she looks just beautiful.

It has to do with her coat. She's got the long, wavy, black and tan coat. It's glossy but the waves tend to absorb the light so you get these rich colors no matter what light you put them in.

You take a dog like my German Shorthaired Pointer, who has this very short, extremely glossy coat and he looks horrendous in the sun. Unless I actually position him so that you get these white highlights that sculpt his face, I really have to put him in shade. Flash just turns into these glossy white highlights.

Now, take a short-coated black dog and you make life even worse. A long-coated black dog like your flat coat retriever, something like that, you have a lot more variations that the camera can see. Then if they have a shiny coat, you basically have white and black. Move into the shade. It's really, really, really going to help.

Learn your dog and then learn other peoples' dogs. Find out what lighting works on them, what doesn't.

In Closing

If you want to overcome the obstacles of photographing a jet black or pure white dog, it's a matter of exposure, lighting and understanding the breed. According to Jenni Bidner, this is the best way to improve your results and overcome the challenges of black dog photography.