Photographing a black dog...i need help

[Tuss]

jpg. never heard of RAW. Will have to break out the manual of my camera if i can find it.

[Beau's mom]

Gemma is beautiful!! I'm no pro, for sure. I do think that on the outside shots, with the snow behind her, you might try using a flash (indirect, pointed upward) to get the details of her beautiful face. B&W dogs are a challenge. Also, try processing them as black and white photos! And, the wonder of digital is that we can afford to take a hundred shots to get a couple good ones!

[Tuss]

I took more than a hundred this morning to get those! Beau is another of Gemma's "fur twins". thanks for the advice!

[atsilvers27]

Great job on that shot of Kodi! I see what you mean about getting the silkiness of the hair and the eyes and facial expression, excellent job! That is why I purposely chose not to get a back dog, I know I wouldn't be able to do that!

[krandall]

Originally Posted by Tuss

jpg. never heard of RAW. Will have to break out the manual of my camera if i can find it.

Yes, I'm sure your camera can shoot RAW... Even my 10D, the first "consumer" priced Canon DSLR, could shoot RAW. I'm sure that by the time the Rebels came out they would have had RAW capability as well. You'll be astounded how much more information is at your disposal, especially if you then work in 16 bit mode in PS (or LR... Not sure whether Elements offers 16 bit processing, it might).

[krandall]

Originally Posted by Beau's mom

Gemma is beautiful!! I'm no pro, for sure. I do think that on the outside shots, with the snow behind her, you might try using a flash (indirect, pointed upward) to get the details of her beautiful face. B&W dogs are a challenge. Also, try processing them as black and white photos! And, the wonder of digital is that we can afford to take a hundred shots to get a couple good ones!

Pointing a flash up only works if you have a ceiling or reflector to bounce it off of. If it's pointed up outdoors, the light is directed straight into the air, and won't hit the subject at all.

[Beau's mom]

This proving I'm no pro! Just trying to be helpful!!


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[krandall]

Originally Posted by atsilvers27

Great job on that shot of Kodi! I see what you mean about getting the silkiness of the hair and the eyes and facial expression, excellent job! That is why I purposely chose not to get a back dog, I know I wouldn't be able to do that!

It's certainly not easy!. But I specifically was looking for a performance dog, and chose Kodi based on that. His parents seem to only produce two "models"... Kodi's black head, white body type, and black puppies with white trim. Not totally surprising, I guess, since his mom is marked like him, and his dad is black with white trim.

And while Kodi may be hard to photograph, but his striking markings make him really stand out. Everyone remembers the little white dog with the black head!

[Suzi]

What is RAW?
Mine are hard to photograph too! Gemma's markings are exactly the same as Maddies. I think the difference is her size. Maddie has smaller features like her face. Maddie is only 8 lbs how much does Gemma weigh?
This is a bad picture as far as showing the black and tan but look at how much they look alike. I know we have said it before.

[HannahBearsMom]

Originally Posted by krandall

If you have a DSLR, expose for the white, since, if you blow that out, you can't recover it) and then pull the details out of the dark in you processing software. You can do "spot" adjustments in both of these programs to pull detail out specifically in the eyes if you need to)

Karen's metering method might work fine, but I prefer to meter off something grey. If you cah't find something true grey to meter, try metering off grass. Green grass and grey should both work very well.