Black, white and two-tone coats: getting the brightness right

This page is for pets whose coats confuse a camera: black dogs and cats, white ones, and two-tone and patterned coats such as tuxedo cats and tortoiseshells. It explains why a phone makes a black coat too light or a white coat too dark, how to set the brightness yourself, and which backgrounds help. The other steps are in the main pet photo guide.

The article on German shepherd portraits has a short section on photographing a dark coat. This page covers the reason behind the problem and every coat colour.

Why the camera gets these coats wrong

Every phone has a light meter, a sensor that measures light and decides how bright the photo should be. Encyclopaedia Britannica explains that exposure meters built into cameras measure reflected light, the light that bounces off the subject toward the camera, and that fully automatic cameras correct the exposure by themselves.

Fstoppers, a photography publication, explains that a camera's light meter tries to show the scene as a medium tone, close to what photographers call 18 percent grey. In a mixed scene, with light and dark parts, the average lands close to that middle tone and the result looks right. When the frame is filled with tones far brighter or darker than that middle grey, it says, the meter cannot tell a scene that is meant to be bright from one that is too bright, and pulls the exposure toward the middle. Its examples include snow turning grey and a black cat turning grey.

• A black coat that fills the frame reflects little light. The meter brightens the photo, and the black fur comes out charcoal grey, with the shadows lifted. Fstoppers lists a black cat on a dark couch as a typical case.
• A white coat that fills the frame reflects a lot of light. Nikon School UK says snow reflects so much light that it can fool the metering system into underexposing, leaving dull grey tones. A white coat that fills most of the frame is a large bright area of the same kind.

There is a second problem for dark pets. Cats Protection says a subject lit from behind will appear dark, like a silhouette, and a black coat in front of a bright window loses its detail first. The American Kennel Club (AKC) uses this on purpose for silhouettes: it advises setting the exposure for a bright background, which leaves the dog completely black. The page on lighting a pet photo explains how to put the light in front of your pet instead.

Setting the brightness yourself

The fix is to tell the phone how bright you want the photo. Photographers call this exposure compensation. Fstoppers explains that positive compensation makes the image brighter, negative compensation makes it darker, and each full step, called a stop, doubles or halves the amount of light.

On a phone this is a slider:

1. Tap your pet's face. Apple's iPhone guide says tapping the screen moves the focus area there. An AKC article gives the same tip: tap the screen where you want the focus and exposure, so the photo is lighter or darker as you need.
2. Drag to adjust. Apple says you then drag up or down next to the focus area to adjust the exposure. Up is brighter, down is darker.
3. Lock it if your pet is still. Apple says touching and holding the focus area until AE/AF Lock appears locks the focus and exposure for the next shots. On a Google Pixel, Google's help page says you tap the subject and can tap Lock to keep the focus and exposure on it.

Google's Pixel help page on low light photos describes sliders for brightness and for shadows, shown when you tap and hold the screen. The shadows slider raises or lowers the dark areas of the photo, which is where a black coat sits.

Apple also has a separate Exposure control, reached by swiping up from the camera modes at the bottom of the screen, which locks until you next open the Camera app. Apple says a setting called Preserve Settings can keep it even after that, so reset it after the session.

What to aim for

Take one photo at each setting and compare them on the screen. Zoom in on the fur in each.

Light for dark and light coats

A black coat reflects little light, so it needs more light on it. Soft daylight from a window, falling on the face, shows the shine on dark fur and the shape of the head. The Cats Protection volunteer who wrote photo tips for the UK cat charity says natural light through a window can give sharp photos with lots of detail and highlights.

Dark pets often lose their eyes in a photo, because dark fur surrounds them. An AKC article suggests using a reflector to add life to a dog's eyes, and says a white foam core board can do the job. Hold it on the side away from the window, below the face, so it sends light up into the eyes.

A white coat needs soft light too. When a photo is brighter than its range, the photo checker on this page advises trying a photo taken out of direct sun, so white fur keeps its detail. Open shade or a window with no direct sun coming through suits a white pet.

Backgrounds for each coat

The Cats Protection volunteer gives clear advice on backgrounds: a white cat looks good against a dark background, and a dark cat against a light background, to create contrast. Cats with patterned coats, such as tortoiseshells, can look busy and get lost visually, and look best against clear, pale backgrounds.

Cats Protection also suggests a background that complements the colour of a cat's eyes, such as gold or green, or one that contrasts with its fur.

A background with contrast also helps the meter. Fstoppers says the meter works well when a scene mixes light and dark parts, and a light wall behind a black dog, or a dark blanket behind a white cat, gives the frame that mix.

Two-tone and patterned coats

A tuxedo cat, a border collie or a Boston terrier has both black and white fur in the same photo. The meter averages the two, and either colour can come out wrong. Set the brightness on the face, where the eyes are. Then zoom in and check both colours: the black should still show texture, and the white should still show separate hairs.

A tortoiseshell or a tabby has many tones mixed together. These coats already mix light and dark, which suits the meter, and the main risk is the background, as Cats Protection says. Keep it plain and pale.

Checking brightness with the photo checker

The photo checker further down this page reads your photo in your browser, and the photo never leaves your device. It reports three brightness numbers:

• Average brightness, from 0 (black) to 255 (white), for the whole photo. The checker uses 70 to 200 as its own range and marks a photo outside it.
• The share of pixels near pure black. These pixels hold no detail.
• The share of pixels near pure white. These hold no detail either.

For a black or white pet, read these numbers with care. A correctly exposed black cat on a dark sofa can average under 70, and a white dog on a white bed can average over 200, because the average covers the whole scene. The two shares are more useful here. A large share of near-black pixels on a black coat means parts of the fur have become flat black. A large share of near-white pixels on a white coat means parts have become flat white. Compare the numbers across a few photos of the same pet, and pick the one with the smallest shares that still looks right on the screen.

When the brightness looks right, check the eyes for focus as the page on sharp pet photos explains. The portrait studio takes the photo you choose as one image file of up to 5 MB. The pages on photographing cats and phone camera settings cover the rest of the session.