Walkthrough: Black Dog, Black Background

Some of our members are creating beautiful images of dogs on black backgrounds and so I thought I'd post up some of the techniques we use here to make the process both effective and efficient. It's about half an hour long and takes us through the process from the original rough image through to the finished PSD and covers:
  • Prepping the file and the importance of the blacks
  • The lighting patterns used
  • The Photoshop techniques to clean it up including layers,

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6 months ago

Hi Paul, I love this video and used it a few years ago. I’ve gone back to it today now using PS 2022 and can’t seem to get the Stroke Path to work as I already have a mask layer for the subject. I just wonder if I need to do something different now using a later version of PS.
Thank you! Beth

Adrian Grand
Adrian Grand
1 year ago

I am very happy to find your website. Absolutely love the way you explain things. Thank you so much for taking the time to do it.

pared
pared
3 years ago

Really loved this video. Lots of advice only gleaned from experience. Thank you so much for sharing, Paul

juanernesto1
juanernesto1
3 years ago

Paul, you made this look simple enough for those of us getting started to feel like “I can do that”. Thanks for this lesson and for your dedication to helping to enthusiast elevate our game.

dmacias
dmacias
3 years ago

OMG that was such a great explanation and the last tip about the printing, wow, that is great. Thank you.

David Llewellyn-Jones
David Llewellyn-Jones
3 years ago

Very useful Paul. Especially the part about creating paths. Never knew about that. Now I just have to wait for a black dog to come in. Our maybe just go and grab one from the street as I’ve been dying to photograph a black dog on a black background for ages.

amacken
3 years ago

Thank you Paul, very well explained and very useful.