Whinny and Snap Pet Photography

In this installment of Pet Photography How-To's, let's talk about how to get your black pet to actually look black when you take their picture. As smart as modern cameras are, oftentimes pictures of black dogs or cats come out looking either really gray (can happen when you're taking close-up shots), or looking way too black, like a black blob. Why does this happen? Well, the answer is a bit technical, but I'll try to keep it simple so that we can get pictures of your black beauties looking fabulous as quickly as possible.

When you press the shutter button to take a picture, your camera does something called metering, which is a fancy word for evaluating how bright the scene is. Based on some sophisticated calculations, your camera will decide how to expose the picture, or in other words, decide how bright or dark to make the picture. It usually does a pretty good job, except A) when there is lots of black in your scene (e.g. close-up of Fido) or B) when there are really bright areas of your scene along with really dark areas (e.g. Fido in the park on a sunny day). In situation A, the camera will often make the picture turn out too bright which makes Fido look grayish, and in situation B, the picture will usually turn out with Fido looking like a black hole. If you want more of the nitty gritty of metering, you can find a great article all about it here.

So now, how do we fix the problem? Well, there is no single solution for all possible scenarios but here are a few things you can do that will help make your pictures of your black pets much better.

Take pictures in a location that is less bright

First of all, try to avoid taking pictures in direct sunlight. Ideally you want to shoot in the shade, when it's overcast, or during the "magic hour" (the last hour of the day before the sun sets). If you have to shoot in the middle of a sunny day, find some shade and try to frame your pictures so that you're shooting against a darker background such as grass or a dark building that's also in the shade. The goal here is to have less bright areas in your picture, so that the range of tones in the scene is less extreme. This makes your camera's job much easier and it will reward you with much better looking pictures!

As an example, the picture below on the left was taken of Missy in the middle of the day in direct sunlight. The picture on the right was taken during the magic hour and out of direct sunlight. Big difference, right?

By the way, when you start taking pictures in the shade, your camera may want to start using flash.  Unless you want your dog to look like a deer in headlights, it's best to turn your flash off and make use of the beautiful light around you. For our black furry friends that live indoors, these same principles apply. If your house is too dark to shoot without flash, try to situate Fido so that he's facing a window. Here's a picture of Missy playing with her rubber chicken next to our sliding glass door in the middle of the day. She is lit up nicely by the soft, indirect light coming through the glass door.

Use exposure compensation

Even though you've now found a good time/place to take pictures, you still may need to do some fine tuning to get things looking just right. This is where something called "exposure compensation" comes in to play. Basically, adjusting your camera's exposure compensation allows you to tell the camera to make the picture a little bit brighter or darker. Most cameras have exposure compensation but every camera has these settings in a different place, so you may have to dust off your camera's user manual to find out how to make these adjustments.  Below is a picture of how the exposure compensation settings look on my trusty old Canon PowerShot, and they probably look similar on your camera.

If you've just taken a picture of your dog and he's looking a bit too bright or gray, adjust the exposure compensation down a few clicks. If the picture is coming out too dark, simply bump the exposure compensation up. Take the picture again. Better? Piece of cake!

Although exposure compensation works well with dSLRs too (usually works with any of the semi-automatic modes), I highly recommend getting to know manual mode if you find yourself in these tricky situations often. It takes practice to get used to but it'll make it much easier for you in the long run.

Ok, that's it for now! Get out there and start taking pictures of your beautiful black pets! Let me know how your pics are turning out and please share them with everyone on my facebook fan page.

Happy snapping!

I’m very excited to present the first installment of my new blog series: Pet Photography How-To’s! Lots of people tell me how they struggle to capture how cute their dogs or cats really are, so I’m hoping these tips will help you take pictures that do your pets justice! Most of the advice I'll give is geared toward taking pictures of dogs, but most of these tips will work for your cats or other pets too. I've tried to make these tutorials simple enough that anyone with a camera phone will find them useful, but I'm also including some more technical stuff for all you camera nerds out there (like me!) with big fancy dSLRs. So here we go – first up, Camera Angles!

Thinking about the angle you're shooting at is a great place to start to give your pics some WOW factor. Read-on to learn more about 4 simple, but awesome angles to try!

Shoot Down 

I don’t mean just point the camera down as your dog sits on the ground. I mean get close, practically stand over them and then shoot down. Then make sure to get his attention so he looks up at you with those adorable puppy-dog eyes.  This picture makes you feel that your pooch really is man’s best friend. You can almost hear him say through the picture “Master, pet me! I’ll do anything to get you to pet me!”

Shoot Up

You’re going to have to get dirty for this one! More than likely your dog, especially for small dogs, will need to be on a table, bench or couch and you’ll be the one either sitting, kneeling or even laying on the ground looking up at them. Who’s the master now?! That’s the feeling you get from this shot. Fido is in charge, they’re on top of the world, and they’re the boss! It makes for a really fun new perspective. You don’t normally see your dog from this angle.

Shoot at Eye Level

Get down to your dog's level so you are looking them straight in the eye. This perspective allows you to really connect with your dog. In these pictures you feel the emotion, the connection... you feel the love. Whether your dog always has a dog-smile on his face or tends to be more poised, taking their picture from eye level captures their real, honest expression.

Tilt It

The camera, that is! It’s as simple as tilting either the left or right side of the camera up just a bit. Sometimes my tilting gets a little crazy and I have to tone it down, so this is an instance where less might be more. But with that being said, tilting the camera can really change the mood of your picture. It adds some excitement. We typically look at the world straight on, so a little bit of tilt can really add some jazz.

I know some of these might sound a little strange, especially if you're used to just holding your camera in front of you and shooting, but I promise with some practice they can have a huge impact on your photos. So now go out and try it! I'd love to see how these angles are working out for you so after you try them post your photos on the Whinny and Snap Facebook fanpage!

Also, in case you're wondering, some of the upcoming tutorials I've got in the works include "What to look for in a setting" and "Getting black dogs to actually look black on camera". I love sharing and I’m open to ideas so if you have a topic you want me to discuss, just email me and I’ll see what I can do!

Happy snapping!