The theme for this week’s #52Snapshots of Life photo challenge is “Black“. With a black cat in the house, it seemed the obvious way to go! It truly can be more challenging to photograph black pets so I looked up an article to try to get some tips on how to do it better. Putting them in front of a bright background was one of the suggestions, so I got Samantha up in the window with the sunny day behind her. I didn’t get the clarity I wanted so opted to do some edits and make it into more of a silhouette image.
I used the “Holga” effect in Picmonkey, putting the blur at 50%. This effect adds a vignette, or darkening and blurring around the edge. It also took most of the color out of the photo, but it allowed me to paint that back in. I painted some of the background back in, as well as Sam’s eye, because I wanted that to show up, instead of just a totally black silhouette. Thank goodness for editing, because until I get a new camera, I don’t think I’m ever going to be happy with my photos!
Coming Soon
We’ve got three reviews with giveaways coming up starting tomorrow, so stay tuned! We will be reviewing:
- Anxiety Relief for dogs from PL360
- Deluxe Solvit Telescoping Pet Ramp
- 4Knines Back Seat Cover
If you don’t already subscribe to us by email, you might want to, so you don’t miss any of these giveaways! You can subscribe by clicking here or on the red bar that pops up at the bottom of this post. We never share your email with anyone.
Thank you to the The Lazy Pit Bull for hosting the#52Snapshots of Life photo challenge. Are you joining in the fun? Photos can be shared via blog or social media, just use the hashtags #52Snapshots and#PBSG.
This is beautiful!
I think you did a nice job with the photo! I use Picmonkey all the time but don’t know the Holga effect. Where is it?
Thank you, Jody! The Holga effect is under the “camera look” effects on Picmonkey. Apparently a “Holga” was some kind of special Chinese camera back in the 1980’s. They had plastic lenses that created a grainy photo with that vignetting around the edges!
ohhhh I love it
Nice photo!
Love the kitty picture, you are right black pets are so hard to photograph! Love Dolly
Wow that’s such a striking pic! Love it!
Beautiful picture and effects.
I love the way that came out! I was at a loss as to what the show for black.
It’s definitely not an easy one if you don’t conveniently have a black pet!
Very nice picture! But then you had a good subject. 🙂
And Samantha was actually very cooperative too, which she often isn’t! She posed in all the windows for me!
That is a great silhouette!
That is way cool! Hey, don’t forget to check out my happy pics!
Oh, thanks for letting me know they were up! I’m so behind on reading, and I have to go away this weekend…which is when I usually catch up! I love them!
Mom was wishing we still had a black pet for this week, but sadly they are both gone. Your photo came out pretty cool! We just got a 4KNines seat cover to review too. We have the cargo liner and it is awesome!
I know the challenge of photographing black pets well! Even though Barley’s tri-colored, it is so hard to get a picture where her eyes show up! I think this one of Sam turned out great!
Yes, I get the same challenge with Luke too, even though he is black and white!
It works well as a silhouette.
Oh I love that photo!!! Well done with your editing!!!!
AND.,….YAY!!! You landed the 4knines review??? Congrats!!
ღ husky hugz ღ frum our pack at Love is being owned by a husky!
That is a purr-fect photo for black. Oh, we do love us a giveaway! BOL!
I love how you can see her fur so well in silhouette. Lovely.
And yes, thank goodness for photo editing tools.
Good luck with your giveaways. We love our Solvit telescoping ramp but we use it to help Honey get from the dock to the boat. See? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcfYImE9cy8
I love the video…Honey did great! I think your blog was one of the first ones that got me interested in this ramp (I entered your giveaway but didn’t win!).
Sheba has done much better with it than I expected. I knew Luke and Cricket would be pretty easy, but Sheba can be timid of new things (like Honey).
The only issue we’re working through now is that she freaks out a little when I put it up into the car. But I think she’ll get over that, plus she can retreat to the front of the car when I’m doing that.
I plan to do a video too…should be fun!
Such a pretty silhouette
Lily & Edward
with a black cat in the house the good luck came to you… right, Samantha? I love black animals, it’s anyway the bestest color … together with silvermistygrey of course :o)
Natural anxiety relief?? Oh, I HAVE TO try that for Shadow — once I get the vet’s approval!! The Prozac just made her lose her appetite; and it’s still not completely back to normal even though we took her off the Prozac more than 3 weeks ago.
I love that photo of Samantha! But on the tiny screen of my phone – and with my blind-as-a-bat vision – I can’t see her eye. I’ll have to check it out on the laptop later.