Friday, January 24, 2014

Sammy, Harry, and Loki...and photographing the black Greyhound

A long time ago I was asked by Carrie of Tales and Tails about how to photograph black Greyhounds. I'll share a few suggestions on how I photograph them that you might find helpful:

  • Photograph black Greyhounds in shade whenever possible (pictured: Sammy, photographed in open shade):
  • Avoid mid-day, direct sunlight, if possible, to prevent hot spots on the fur. I prefer to photograph in the early morning or late afternoon when the light is softer and comes in at a lower angle (pictured: Harry, photographed around 9AM):
  • If you do use flash outdoors, lower the camera's flash compensation to -1 (or whatever value you prefer) to keep the fur from appearing too shiny as black Greyhounds tend to be that way. (On Nikons, this button is used to control the flash's output when used in combination with turning the command dial either left or right. Image copyright Ken Rockwell.). I set the camera's flash exposure mode to slow-sync, which allows the camera to keep both the background and the subject properly exposed. And if your flash has a tilting head, point it up at least 45 degrees and use a flash diffuser if you have one to soften the light further (pictured: Loki, photographed in late afternoon with flash compensation of -1 and slow-sync):

These are just suggestions which give me the results I'm looking for. Play around with the various settings until you find the values that you like.

(Shot with the Nikon D600 using the 50mm and 105mm VR lens. All shot in RAW, converted to DNG, and imported into Lightroom.)

    13 comments:

    1. Thanks for the hints. With 3 black dogs, it can be a struggle to get well exposed shots. At least when they grey in the face, the autofocus works better.

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      1. oh, yeah, trying to get focus lock on a black animal is...well, trying.

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    2. Wow! These are stunning shots. I'm so glad you did this post! Outside, I don't think I do too bad, but inside, I don't do so great. The lighting in the house is horrible, and that isn't helping.

      I got a Speedlight for Christmas, and I swear, I need a remedial course on how to operate the thing. It wasn't what I asked for, but it's what I got. I can't use it near the other lights or it makes them all flash. My understanding is that its maybe supposed to do that, but it doesn't help with my dead flash situation upstairs. *sigh*

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      Replies
      1. your speedlight is acting as the commander with your studio lights acting as slaves, i take it — meaning your lights will trigger when they see the flash from your speedlight. take a look at your flash settings on your camera (i don't recall what model you have) and see if it's in commander mode. you'd only want it set that way if you mean to trigger your lights with your flash.

        i have a pair of Pocket Wizards that i use with my off-camera umbrella: one mounts on the camera as a master, the other acts as a slave and has my speedlight mounted on it, which in turn is mounted to my umbrella. i don't play with it enough.

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      2. YES!!!! I'll have to look around and see if I can find that. It's a Nikon D3100. I definitely do NOT want to trigger the lights with the flash! It's been driving me insane.

        Pocket Wizards? *must resist urge to Google this*

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      3. heh, that's funny how that got your attention. :) my PWs are almost two years old, i think, and aren't the current models. i waited for the longest time for them to make PWs compatible with nikon.

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    3. These are beautiful, Steve. Thanks for the tips.

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      Replies
      1. thanks, connie. i hope that people are aware that they can change their flash's output. i didn't realize for a long time that i could control it because camera manuals make for bad reading.

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    4. Gorgeous photos of these black beauties! I don't have a black greyhound (or dog), but I do have a black cat, and it is definitely challenging to get photos of him that I am happy with!

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      Replies
      1. unless i have an edge to focus on with a black cat, i'll have to focus manually. with our two black cats they usually they end up looking like two black holes in the room.

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    5. Greyt tips! I didn't realize black hounds were harder to photograph, now it makes sense why my pictures don't always turn out.

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      Replies
      1. i've been asked to provide comparison photos of each suggestion, so stay tuned for that in another post...if i can get sadie to cooperate!

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