You talkin' 'bout Black Labs?
There is one of those in the fam and she is just about impossible to capture digitally unless you set the camera to capture low level light reflection and let everything else go. I swear her fur is about the most light absorptive material I've ever seen, though she has a fur sheen in strong sunlight that people remark about..
I have volunteered my services at the local animal shelter to try and avert the “black dog syndrome” via *good* photos of their dogs.
The snobby jerks said they have their own photographer.
[an under-educated employee with a pocket camera]
But yeah, Labs tend to be like black holes, sucking in all the light of the room.
:D
You think it’s hard to photograph them, you should try painting one.
Yikes.
Stressful.
The key is disregarding what you *see* and painting instead, what the viewer should see.
Lots and lots of white/washed out blues, blacks and grays with bits of green, brown or red.
It defies explanation.
Black Poodles and Chows are even worse.
The defining highlights tend to just not be there so you gotta get “creative”.