Three Maltese Puppies (Click to enlarge)
This was a gumby-dog shoot. In past posts I’ve suggested that if a good composition has your subjects evenly spaced, a better one would be with them close enough to touch. The closer the better for my taste. If the subjects just sit there and let you place them anywhere and hold still just as you left them…gumby dogs. These sweet babies had just turned 7 weeks. Remember not to pop lights at any animal younger than 6 weeks as their tender retinas can be damaged. One of our reputable breeders comes in occasionally to make portraits of a litter which will be available for adoption/sale. Although this capture was made a few years ago, and two of these fellas have been in to our studio for their toddler and adolescent portraits as well, for me this shot remains compelling. Their interest in the studio happenings was real and you can see their already emerging personalities. Bold and shy before your eyes.
I post these little sweeties today to talk about white dogs with colored backdrops. I love this color backdrop and like to shoot white dogs on it, but this situation can pose a problem due the the nature of light and color absorption and reflection. In order to understand what is happening to the white dog with bright colors around her you will need to understand something about the nature of color. You may get some argument here as color depends upon which category you are speaking about. Either light generated color, as in computer screen renderings, or pigment generated as they may be created in nature: the red apple. When generated as light black is not a color. No light? No color. Black. When white is generated as light, on the other hand, the blending of all colors makes it a color, right?. Here’s proof: sunlight is white light that includes all the colors in the spectrum. You see this in rainbows, which is conditional bending of rays which produce these colors from white light. Colors that exist in pigment have the reverse explanation. Blending all three primary colors, red, yellow, blue, will result in black; therefore yes, black is a color here.
Okay, this was not meant to be a color theory tutorial. Good thing too, as there is some further explanation needed to understand grey and a kind of muddy color, but for our purposes here let’s just accept the premises above. So in the studio we are dealing with light generated color on pigment. We will then begin to understand that white, a color in this case, is reflecting all color. How does that impact the photographer? Well, it’s a biggie when you’re photographing white subjects. The predominant color in this image of the three Maltese is green. A bright green. Because the light is reflecting all colors, and green is the predominant color, that green appears everywhere…even on the puppies!
Although I still have problems avoiding color on a white dog, there is a simple post processing fix for this. Use your desaturation tool. These three had green all over their chins, bibs and feet. I used the desaturation tool to make them white again. I hope this is some information you can use in your endeavors to make that special capture of your pet. As always, please comment on this or any photo or post. How about posting one of yours? We’d love to see it and try to assist you with your problems or perhaps you can help me with mine.
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