... my favourite model and trusted companion : SCOTTIE ! I'm sure you see the problem in photographing this bundle of joy. She's as black as the night. I've been trying to improve the quality of the pics, but i don't even come near the quality i've seen in books, magazine covers, ... Do i have to do something with the light (flash etc...), or postprocessing in Photoshop, or something else ? What do you think ?

...guarding the "estate".

...back from the hairdresser (trimmer); always costs me an arm and a leg. But she's sooooo proud when she returns.

Can you give us some info on your setup Things like camera, what time of day, are you using a tripod. One good tip I saw in a photo mag was, to get down to thier eye level, instead of looking down at your dog

I agree more info on the set up would help. Adjusting contrast & levels in Photoshop can do a lot. The first two look pretty good to me, lovely face detail in #1. Beautiful dog ; )

All the pics were postprocessed in Photoshop (after calibrating them to the right colorspace, necessary for my cam). I had to scale them down (obviously), adjusted levels and applied a hint of unsharp mask. Equipment : Minolta Dimage 5 in manual mode. I can give you the stats for the originals, but i don't know if they are at all relevant since i tinkered with the photo's. Time of day : afternoon, bright and sunny, no flash. Can't use a tripod when photographing this hyperactive little dog... Shutter speed should have been sufficient to avoid handshake (1/181). If you like, you can play around with them in PS; i'd like to know how to improve these shots in postprocess. I can post an original if you like (scaled down to 800 x 600).

What a cute dog! I have the Dimage 7, but unfortunately I cannot help you...it would seem to me that black eyes on a black face would be a difficult thing no matter what type of equipment you were using...maybe someone else has a better knowledge of how to manipulate this type of situation.

Cool pooch there and some GREAT pix! When I first saw pix#2, I though she had a PIPE in here mouth. Its that blue thingy which is actually behind her. You could use the PS clone tool to get rid of that! I've been using that alot as of late! Definitely a handy tool! L8r!

Beautiful dog! The detail and contrast seems fine to me too, the images themselves do seem just a little out of focus however, perhaps a "hint" more of unsharp mask would help with that? Cute pooch! :-)>

Bright sunny day could be part of the problem, too much contrast with that kind of light, more subdued light might allow more detail to show up but I'm only guessing!

I'm with bevchiron. Get Scottie into some nice shade, under a maple tree or wait for an overcast day, or use a lite-disc (but it would have to be a big one, I think). You can try flash, but my dog has got so she recognizes the sound, and she looks away, every time. If you have a high end flash, something with e-ttl, or one that you can bounce, it's less of a problem. The catchlights in the eyes in the third one are a real plus. You want the focus DEAD on, on the eyes; the rest of the image might be softish, but it won't much matter if the eyes are sharp. I would remove her tags, or hide them; they constitute a distraction in the third image especially, which is actually quite nice even so. I think Azy is right too; very frequently getting down to the dog's level makes for good shots (but many dogs consider it an invitation to approach, soooo, if she knows "stay" it's probably OK--my dog gets a snotty expression on her face if I use that word tho'--LOL she's a real witch). What lens are you using?