With a previous black dog and several black cats I should have known better.  It is so hard to get a good photo of them.  Any tips for getting something other than a black splotch as a photo?  Using a digital camera that does have some manual controls but I have never tried them.

Do you have a program such as photosuite etc?  If not e-mail me a couple of photo's that you've done on diane.philipson@ntlworld.com and I'll have a play around.

Only other ways is say a blue or white background.

I  know your problem as we have a black cat too!  At least the dog has contrasting white though his brown eyes merge quite well with his black head. 

Anyway I just asked OH but he's a professional photographer so what he suggests is a bit of jibberish to me:

- Use a lot of fill in flash as the black absorbs all the light
(I said yes but then their eyes glow madly and OH said well if you have proper flash equipment then that shouldn't happen :rolleyes: .  I guess maybe it's one of those flashes that point away from the thing you're photographing, but hey we don't all have expensive cameras :) )

- Or outside, photograph him in a flat light (i.e. not bright sunlight but overcast) but expose for the black, don't know if you can manually change the exposure on your camera but it might be worth looking in the manaul.  You still might need fill in flash though apparently.

Sounds a bit complicated to me, maybe you'll just have to accept the black splotch look!

I know what your OH means - outside light is better but not a bright sunny day especially winter light as it makes for too much glare & contrast, you just need a day where there's good light.   I wouldn't take indoor photos of a black animal and have to use flash, outdoor is a kinder, gentler light.

Here's a couple of examples I took at SKC last year on the little Canon Ixus i.

Christine, those photographs are superb!

I had a look at them earlier and was sure I'd replied :rolleyes: mind you, I'd had a lager :-D  They really are great photos Christine.

I was about to suggest always taking the photo with a green background, whilst in Brazil i watched a photographer take the pictures of all the black american cockers, he told me [ also in a lot of technical jargon] that there is something in the green against black in the colour spectrum that gives you the definition, and i must say you could see every hair and detail on the dogs, i queried the use of his high tech cameras to get the effect but he allowed my friend to take pics of her black against his backgrounds [ no lighting] with her cheapie digi camera and the effects were stunning also............just my twopenn'erth
Pauline

chroma green or blue can help (bishops post) but basically you need to expose for the blackness of the dog and spot metering works best. Beware using digital editiing after the pic has been taken as this can cause major colour/repro problems.