Dog Portrait Photo

[Mike Buckley]

I have a green Panne Velour that looks absolutely black under some lighting. This is fine for a white or lighter color dog but would be terrible for a black dog...

Why would it be terrible for a black dog?

[rpcrowe]

Mike, I think that it would be difficult to light the dog and have the B.G. come out O.K. being that it reflects in green...

[bje07]

Freshly home from her first day of spring pamper and trim, I decided to try to get a portrait shot of our Soft Coated Wheaten Terrier. After 1/2 bag of doggie treats, this is the best I could make. C & C most welcome.

Very nice pose, good catchlight, sharp image. Congratulations Stu.

[Cantab]

Black animals are, to me, the most difficult to photograph. I like lighting that is glancing off the coat to show details.

Light backgrounds might be the first intuitive choice but, I don't really like a really light BG for a black animal. A medium blue (not dark like Navy blue) is always good. This is a royal blue, stretch Panne Velour (from fabric.com) which looks best when it is out of focus...



https://www.fabric.com/buy/uo-967/st...t-velour-royal

As far as the type of material, velvet or the less expensive velveteen or velour is nice but, can cause problems with reflections. Some velvets or velveteens are better than others. Fleece has the advantages of no reflection and the other advantage is that it is dirt cheap. The Panne does reflect but, I use a long lens when I shoot the dogs and it is easy to knock the BG OOF to make it look like a varied BG.

Richard, thank you for your comments. My wife and I both like the look of the blue in your portrait of the black dog. So now my goal is to try for two types of portraits. One with a blue background and a more dramatic one along the lines suggested by Mike.

But the greatest difficulty may be convincing our cat to pose. We don't feed her treats so I have nothing to bribe her into an appropriate posture. I'll have to rely on my persuasive personality.

[Mike Buckley]

But the greatest difficulty may be convincing our cat to pose.

That being the case, I would use just about any background other than black. The black background will require more control than lighter backgrounds.

[Sailorstu]

Perfect shot, Stu! Trust Richard to really look at this one and if he makes a good review, you're home and hosed.

Thank you Izzie!

[Sailorstu]

Very nice pose, good catchlight, sharp image. Congratulations Stu.

Merçi beaucoup Jean!

[bje07]

[lovelife65]

Very nice. Cannot get our labs to sit still for something like this

[rpcrowe]

I have a black kitty who has just recently changed from a feral cat living in our Motorhome Garage to a house cat. I have not photographed her because I want her to get used to her new surroundings before I stress her out.

My previous cat who was a great big old tabby was quite mellow and I nabbed a shot of him one morning while he was perusing the newspaper after he had his coffee...



Actually, the morale behind this story is that the best way to get a cat to pose, is not to try but be ready to shoot if it does strike a good pose...



Seriously though, an attractor can sometimes work with a cat. Pet stores sell feathered lures on a string tied to the end of a rod that some cats like. However, my old tabby was quite enamored over a portion of a potato chip bag tied to the end of a string at the end of a pole or rod. It made a crinkling noise and perhaps the smell was also interesting to him.

Here is a shot of a dark (although not black) dog on a teal fleece background...



Here's another dark dog on a green fleece



Here's what a blue fleece looks like. As I said, I am lacking any great collection of black dog images, although I am abundantly supplied with images of white dogs

.