Black Eye Dogs

A lot of dogs have very dark fur around their eyes. They show up as two complete black holes sometimes. I had this problem with a recent shoot with Buddy.

I shot in RAW and recovered some detail in the eyes with the Adjustment Brush tool in Camera Raw. This can be done in Photoshop with masking as well.

To bring more detail to the eyes, pay attention to get more catch light from the eyes. In this case, I actually went to emphasize the catch light. It makes the dog look smarter! It's these subtle changes that make significant improvements to the results.


Before


After

Gus and Buddy

I am building my books on pet portraits. What I am trying to achieve is a clean studio look. My goal is to capture these pets as if they are fashion models.

I may end up shooting some outdoor shots in the future, but right now I'd like to focus my efforts into studio type portraits...pets only though. I am still a big fan of on location shoots for humans.

So using my newly assembled studio, my first shoot was of Buddy the mini schnauzer and Gus the english bulldog. I am told the coloured set shows better.

It was a challenge, but both dogs were relatively cooperative. I won't be shooting two dogs together next time though. I also found out that a white backdrop is a disposable item when doing pets.

I will need to figure out if I can set up my studio indoors in a smaller space now that winter is closing in quick. Perhaps I should practice setting up on location to the owners house next time.

These are the two that I enlarged to 12x18 prints. They turned out nicely for what they cost.