From Blue to True

Photographing black dogs

Capturing the essence of black dogs in photographs can be quite a challenge. You might think the difficulty lies in capturing their details, so they don't look like blobs against a gorgeous background. That's the easy part. The bigger hurdle with black dogs is capturing their true black color. 

Have you ever excitedly clicked a photo of your beautiful black dog, only to look at it later and realize your dog is more blue than black in the image? Don't worry, you're not alone! This phenomenon of black dogs appearing mysteriously blue in photos is a common pitfall, especially when photographing in shady areas.

So what's my top tip?

You guessed it. Make sure your black dog is black and not blue.

There are a couple of ways to tackle this color conundrum. One option is to set a custom white balance while photographing your black dog, using a white balance disc, lens cap, or other type of custom white balance tool. This is easy to do, you'll just have to remember to update your white balance throughout your session. This remembering part is why I don't use this method. 

Another way, one that works for memory-challenged folks, like me, is to correct shoot in auto white balance (which is pretty darn good these days) and correct the color while editing. 

If you like your images on the warmer side, you can shoot in 'cloudy' mode instead of auto, and that will warm up your images a tad. That's actually, How I use to shoot all the time. But auto white balance has come a long way, so that's what I use now.

If you're having trouble deciding whether or not your black dog looks blue, you can crank up the saturation. When you bring your saturation back down, you may need to look out a window before looking at the image again, because it will look pretty bland after seeing the high saturation.

However you decide to manage this, it makes a huge difference when your black dog is actually black instead of blue or any other color.