Tips For Photographing Black Dogs

Black and white dogs are some of the hardest pets you’ll encounter to photograph simply due to their coloring.

Whether you’re an amateur pet photographer or simply a pet parent that wants to learn how to take more adorable photos of your black dogs without loss of detail, I’ve got seven tips for you to elevate your photography when it comes to black dogs specifically.

If you prefer to watch or listen to your content, I also have a full YouTube video all about this, too. You can watch that here.

Of course, if you have questions or comments regarding anything in this post, be sure to drop them in the comments or leave a question over on YouTube. I’d be happy to help or answer any that I am able to!

Now, let’s chat all about tips for photographing black dogs.

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Tips For Photographing Black Dogs

1 MAKE SURE THERE IS LOTS OF LIGHT

It is so easy for the detail of a black dog to get lost, so we want to make sure that we are working with a lot of light when photographing a black dog.

I recommend trying to photograph them during the brighter part of golden hour before you lose too much light (that’s generally when I like to shoot). Or if you have multiple dogs in the pack that you’re photographing, start with the black dog first, so you have the most light for that pup as you work through the session.

If you need to start your session a little earlier than normal to account for multiple dogs in a session or especially multiple black dogs, then do it.

Obviously, the length of time needed and at what time you start taking photos, will also depend on the location of choice, the type of shoot it is, the final result you are working towards, how fast you are and your experience level, and most importantly, the light.

2 POP LIGHT IN THEIR FACE

That brings me to the next point which coincides with the first is to make sure that there are catchlights in their eyes and plenty of light on their face.

If the light is too bright behind the subject say if you’re trying to backlight the dog, it will be very hard for your camera to focus on their face. It’s important to balance the light in the front and back of the black dog, so the light is more even allowing the camera to catch the focus on the face, specifically the eyes.

What I like to do here is to face the dog towards the light source, if the sun is low enough in the sky to do so or underneath open shade, use a small reflector, or take advantage of a light colored building, sidewalk, concrete, etc, that will bounce light back onto the dog and help illuminate their face.

Depending on your technical knowledge and comfort level with artificial lighting, utilizing off camera flash can be very useful also for lighting up their face.

3 MAKE SURE YOU CAN IN FACT SEE THEIR EYES

Next, make sure you can in fact see their eyes! A lot of curly haired breeds, specifically poodles, sometimes the notable style for that breed is for the pup to have long hair that lays or hangs into the eyes.

I always ask clients to have their pet groomed at least a few days in advance and if it’s okay, to have the hair around their eyes trimmed enough to see their eyes, otherwise, your camera will have a difficult time focusing on the face especially if you use eye detection or recognition.

I have found when you can’t see the eyes, the photos feel lackluster because the subject isn’t engaging with the camera even if they are looking at the camera.

I also mention this because I’ve noticed that some black dogs have very dark colored eyes meaning that you are already working with a more challenging color of dog and eyes their dark eyes that don’t pick up as much light, so making sure you can see their eyes is just another thing to think about and consider when photographing black dogs.

4 USE A HIGHER APERATURE

Like I mentioned a moment ago, because your camera has trouble focusing on a dark dog’s face and eyes, try using a slightly higher aperture when focusing on their face, so something like an f/4 or f/5.6.

Using a higher aperture means that there is a wider depth of focus making it much more likely for the face and eyes to be sharp and in focus even if your camera is having trouble catching focus. This is a very common mistake most new photographers make, because they want to shoot wide open.

But I recommend practice with a higher aperture first, so you can practice getting the dog tack sharp and nailing your focusing settings - then reduce your aperture later on when you’ve mastered focusing for black dogs!

5 ADJUST YOUR EXPOSURE

I have found when photographing black dogs, your camera will freak out a little bit because it’s trying to expose for this huge dark spot in the center of the frame. When it does that it tends to overexpose your black dog making them look dark gray or off color.

To prevent this, you’ll want to generally underexpose the image intentionally a stop or two in order to accurately correct the exposure manually, so the black dog looks like a black dog.

Doing so can prevent your highlights and shadows from being clipped on the histogram depending on whether the dog you are photographing is black or white.

6 PUT THE BLACK DOG CLOSEST TO THE LIGHT SOURCE

If by chance you are working with multiple dogs at a session or pets and people with a black dog, always make sure the black dog is closest to the light source if possible.

If your black dog is furthest away from your light source in an image with multiple pets and people, you will lose a lot of detail in the animal. They may look like a huge black blob in the image, which nobody wants from their pet’s session.

So, the trick here is to move them to the side or end closest to the light source whether that’s the sun or studio lighting, so that you can gather lots of detail and light in their eyes and they are balanced with the other subjects in the image.

7 PUT THEM ON A CONTRASTING BACKGROUND

Another great trick for photographing black dogs is to put them on a brighter, more contrasting background. I love utilizing a parking lot, concrete, light colored wall or building, or a pretty walkway to use as a backdrop for a black dog.

This is two fold: one, the animal really stands out against the lighter colored backdrop and two, as I mentioned earlier, the lighter background is going to help with light.

Try as much as possible to avoid putting a black dog on a really dark background or area with very little light as it will make photographing them that much more challenging. This obviously does not go for studio portraiture as black dogs on black backdrops with lots of proper artificial light that is a very popular and gorgeous style of pet photography.

8 ADJUST THE DOG IN POST PRODUCTION

If all else fails because when you are working with pets and things don’t go to plan, you can always adjust the dog in post-production. I still want you to follow what I taught in this post, because it will help you maintain detail, light in their face, and catchlights - all of which are super important for a stunning image.

All you have to do later in post-production is darken the shadows or deepen blacks, brighten eyes, or even adjust the color temperature of the dog’s black fur, but hopefully, not much more than that.

So, friends, those were my best tips for photographing black dogs!