Photographing a Black Dog

[ekenny]

Hello,

I took a bunch of photos of a black lab (both inside the house and out). The ones outside came out better than the ones taken inside but they either showed the background as being well exposed and the dog hard to see, or the dog well exposed and the background over exposed.

Id like to get some nice, up close portrait shots, but I've had trouble with how the light reflects in the coat. Does anyone have any suggestions?

[Silentwave]

Have you tried using Fill Flash? That will fill in the detail on the dog and make it more properly exposed in relation to the scene.

[Abstract]

It really depends on how much of the frame the dog fills, but if you're indoors, overexpose by +1/3rds or +2/3 of a stop and forget what the meter says. Hell, even if you're outside, try overexposing by +1/3 stops on a sunny day.

If you're using a point and shoot, use the exposure compensation to expose the dog by that extra +1/3 or +2/3 stops.

[bousozoku]

Spot metering will help, even if your dog isn't named Spot but of course, your camera has to have it available.

It uses a more limited area to set the exposure.

[compuwar]

Hello,

I took a bunch of photos of a black lab (both inside the house and out). The ones outside came out better than the ones taken inside but they either showed the background as being well exposed and the dog hard to see, or the dog well exposed and the background over exposed.

Id like to get some nice, up close portrait shots, but I've had trouble with how the light reflects in the coat. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Fill flash and spot metering are both good suggestions. You may also want to turn on bracketing if your camera supports it, so you can have both a properly exposed dog and background and merge the two images.

[Pac a Mac]

Try asking this guy, this is a really nice study of his black lab

http://forums.macrumors.com/showpost.php?p=3339115&postcount=4496

[ekenny]

Cool thanks for all the replies. I just ordered a new high quality flash so I'll try that and the spot metering.

[bootedbear]

Try asking this guy, this is a really nice study of his black lab

http://forums.macrumors.com/showpost.php?p=3339115&postcount=4496

Good lord, what a striking photo!

[Bibulous]

If you spot meter the dog, the exposure setting will be for a grey dog.

[purelithium]

I use a simple technique where I meter the dog, a few spots in the background, then make an average of the reading the camera gives me.

If I don't have time, I slightly over expose the shot, and that usually gets the dog where I want it, and I can adjust in PP to make everything look good.

[stcanard]

I have the exact same issue with my dog.

So far the best I've been able to do is fill flash, spot metered on the dog, overexposed by about 2 stops, then use a curve in photoshop to reduce the background exposure as necessary.

Even then its hit-and-miss.

[Clix Pix]

Try asking this guy, this is a really nice study of his black lab

http://forums.macrumors.com/showpost.php?p=3339115&postcount=4496

Actually, that striking effect was achieved in Photoshop. He showed us the original image in this post:

http://forums.macrumors.com/showpost.php?p=3340342&postcount=4502