How can I take better pictures of my black cat?

February 1, 2012 7:02 PM

What are your tips for photographing a black cat?

Houdini is my awesome, long haired black cat. Sometimes I am able to take pictures of him that capture his personality. More often though, he looks like a black blob and not a cat. As his person, I'd like to be able to share the cuteness.

posted by JustKeepSwimming to Pets & Animals (17 answers total)

strong natural lighting against lighter backgrounds - like your sample picture. i find greys, browns, pastels sometimes show up the black cats better than white. it helps pull out any non-black tones from the fur and eyes and such.
posted by nadawi at 7:04 PM on February 1, 2012

Meter on the cat and underexpose by 1.66 to 2 stops. You want your cat to be on Zone 3.
posted by matildaben at 7:10 PM on February 1, 2012 [4 favorites]

Make sure you're feeding him food that promotes a healthy coat.

Having a shiny coat helps a lot.
posted by royalsong at 7:15 PM on February 1, 2012

seconding nadawi. We had a black cat (RIP Jack) and we took lots of photos of him, but we had to either do it in a room filled with natural light or use fill of some sort (a bounce flash would be good if you have a low ceiling). (on preview, jamaro also has a great suggestion.)
posted by bedhead at 7:17 PM on February 1, 2012

Dial down -2ish, use bounced flash.
posted by Threeway Handshake at 8:08 PM on February 1, 2012 [1 favorite]

The wonderful person who took these photos of my cat Sunshine says 'lots of natural light and a good camera'. I'll add that a shiny coat does indeed help.
posted by carsonb at 9:23 PM on February 1, 2012

Seconding a bounced flash! You don't even need to buy a fancy one – one day, I just stuck a white, glossy card in front of my built-in flash, at about a 45° angle (you'll want to experiment a bit), which helped diffuse the flash and bounce it off the ceiling. It also acts as a makeshift underexposure, since the camera thinks it's putting all the flash light on the cat, when in fact, due to your homemade diffuser, it's not. Take a look at my pretty black kitten as a result :) Also, for info, there was very little light when I took these photos. (They would be better if there'd been more – I did have to adjust levels on these, but it was much easier to do and gave a notably better result than photos with a direct built-in flash.)
I am awake!
I am asleep.
A couple months later, I've grown a bit.
posted by fraula at 11:56 PM on February 1, 2012 [2 favorites]

Pin light or strong, distant lamp (basically the same thing) to create highlights. (Obviously you'll need other lighting, too.)
posted by IAmBroom at 7:43 AM on February 2, 2012

Agreed about the natural lighting and neutral, light background. No matter how adorable she's being, if it's after hours it's a given my cat's not going to show up as anything but a black hole if I take her photo, alas. (And I'm sure it goes without saying but I'm no photo expert, just have noticed that when I snap shots on sunny mornings they come out fine, and like with food photography when it's dark it's almost impossible with my point and shoot to make things look right.)
posted by ifjuly at 8:23 AM on February 2, 2012

Disagreeing somewhat with what the others are tending to say, a professional photographer told me that photographing black dogs is one of the few times hard lighting is desirable. So, outdoors under a bright sun or with a direct (not bounced) flash to bring out what little contrast there is in your cat's fur. As the former owner of a black dog I can say the advice worked for me.
posted by TedW at 9:43 AM on February 2, 2012

Jamaro's very nice photos illustrate my point, they were both taken in direct sunlight, usually a no-no. The cat in particular is a difficult subject as you have to choose between blowing out the white fur or losing the highlights in the black fur; in that picture the bright sun brings out the highlights in the black fur nicely.
posted by TedW at 9:47 AM on February 2, 2012

hard lighting

You can't really hard-light a cat, their eyes are like mirrors, and they will look like demons.
posted by Threeway Handshake at 1:15 PM on February 2, 2012

The thing about black cats is you have to highlight their eyes.
posted by nicwolff at 8:40 PM on February 2, 2012

Or, frame them at the side of the composition.
posted by nicwolff at 8:41 PM on February 2, 2012

You can't really hard-light a cat, their eyes are like mirrors, and they will look like demons.

That's what off-camera flash or bright sunlight is for.
posted by TedW at 10:04 AM on February 3, 2012

in addition to what everyone else is saying, it's going to also matter quite a bit whether you're talking about a longhaired or shorthaired cat. Shorthaired black cats can be easier as you can light them with highlights. Most longhaired black cats are very difficult to light properly - often strong lighting washes out their coat and muddies the highlights to a dull greyish-brown. If the lighting is not strong enough, then it's even easier for their light-absorbing black fluff to register as a black hole.

With a longhaired black cat or dog as subject, I've discovered that it's best to have very strong, indirect lighting, like a softbox or even a makeshift portrait studio setup (bright lamp bounced off white sheet, kind of thing.
posted by lonefrontranger at 10:06 AM on February 3, 2012

Threeway Handshake: You can't really hard-light a cat, their eyes are like mirrors, and they will look like demons.

TedW: That's what off-camera flash or bright sunlight is for.

Technically, it's all about the angle of the hard light. Light from in front of the cat's vision (assuming it's looking towards the camera) is likely to produce the mirror effect. Light from behind/above/far to the side won't (as in midday, bright sunlight or far-off-camera flash).
posted by IAmBroom at 11:13 AM on February 3, 2012