I have a friend on FB that has a beautiful portrait of himself with his dog and I'm sure it was professional since he has a show dog but it inspired me.  I shoot still shot photography and am NOT an expert but can do a descent job, so I decided to try to make a portrait with Comet in black and white.

Black and white is a little tricky since you don't want it to look like you just took out all of the color.  It needs some shadows to come off.  So, here's what I did…

I sat on the floor in direct sunlight, making sure the sunlight was at an angle and in Comet's eyes (sounds mean, I know).  I had my husband shoot the photo using the flash.  It was shot in color even though it can be done in sepia tones (if you have it on your camera).  

The photo in color looks really bad and is way over exposed but don't worry about it – it will work out when you remove the color. 

On any paint program, I took the Saturation to zero.  The photo was fine at that point.  But I jazzed it up by adding the color to Comet's bow.  I also darkened the background and I also darkened Comet's eye since the sun lightened them up.  I did the same with my eyelashes.   (It helped that my hair is long so I could cover up my double chin!)

Here's the final product! 

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I would have liked to keep trying to get a better shot of Comet but guess who had to join in!  This is not a posed pic!  This is a monkeybutt pic!

great pictures, thanks for the info!!! 

Thanks for the compliments everyone!

Please post pics of you guys if you do it!!!!!!!!  And if you have better suggestions, let me know.  Like I said, I stole the look and feel from someone else, but it seems to capture feelings toward our little fur babies.

Fortis' dad – I think Charles Black got much better after Comet's portrait.  I was just looking at his site and his work is fantastic. 

As a side note:  on his website there is a video from a local MN TV station - in the piece he is working on Comet's sketch! You can see Comet half done!