Pet portrait – Black & white sheep dog

Kelly is a typical black and white border collie, her owner Julie saw me at the Mortimer fun day stand and booked a session with me for her. It a real task to photograph a black and white furred dog and do it well, I need to make sure the white fur wouldn’t burn out and the black fur still has all its texture. It might not look it but I think its actually more difficult to photograph the black dog on the black background, like the ‘Pug’ I did couple of years ago that won me a merit from national BIPP portrait award .

Black pug on the black background

Kelly the sheep dog is a bit different, I need to make sure the black fur is light properly that it shows texture and you can see all the details. I put a spot light on the black fur and a large Rotalux opposite as the main light. adding the fill in light and the backdrop spot light. Luckily, Kelly is a very well trained dog and does what she told, which means I can put her the way I want it. I am pretty happy with it.

Defined lighting for black and white dog

Kelly’s so well trained that I can make her cross her legs, which Julie told me she never done it before, with a little encouragement, she did it.

Kelly cross legs on the box, she look so relaxed

The I put her inside the box, she just does the cutest thing for me, Its a really good shoot, love the photographs.