low-key black and white dog (and cat) photos

Today, on the most low-key of days, I bring you the new Cowbelly low-key black and whites.

Back before I was doing pet photography professionally, and then for the first year or so of my business I worked almost exclusively in black and white; greatly preferring it to color. (Obviously that has changed over time, ha!). Based on these shots below, I may just have to return to the colorless world on occasion.

Cowbelly’s version of low-key black and white photography. Ohhhhh yeahhhh. Let me know what you think by leaving a comment below! Anyone can do it- no need to be registered anywhere or even have a website. :-)

lowkey14 low-key black and white dog (and cat) photos

FYI: low-key black and white images are those that are mostly very dark (and black) tones, with a much smaller amount of light (and white) tones to define shapes and contrast. True low-key images have very little midtones and are really defined by the striking contrast between the opposite tones. It took me awhile to get these but I think I have succeeded. BTW: I was inspired to do this by low-key photos I saw recently of a motorcycle (or was it a car) in a large studio- they were gorgeous. :-)

lowker10 low-key black and white dog (and cat) photos

Ah yes, a fave of mine as well below.

lowkey8 low-key black and white dog (and cat) photos

lowkey3 low-key black and white dog (and cat) photos

lowkey11 low-key black and white dog (and cat) photos

lowkey13 low-key black and white dog (and cat) photos

lowkey7 low-key black and white dog (and cat) photos

lowkey4 low-key black and white dog (and cat) photos

lowkey2 low-key black and white dog (and cat) photos

lowkey12 low-key black and white dog (and cat) photos

lowkey1 low-key black and white dog (and cat) photos

lowkey9 low-key black and white dog (and cat) photos

I do realize that these last ones are not low-key b/w’s because there is as much light as dark, but I had to throw in some of Teddy since his brother Breyer’s images pepper this post. Teddy is sort of a high-key/low-key medley. 

lowkey6 low-key black and white dog (and cat) photos

lowkey15 low-key black and white dog (and cat) photos

Most expressive eyebrows on a dog ever.

lowkey5 low-key black and white dog (and cat) photos



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This entry was written by Jamie 'Cowbelly', posted on September 7, 2008 at 9:00 am, filed under Personal Projects, digital editing and tagged , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Post a comment or leave a trackback: Trackback URL.

22 Comments

  1. Grace said . . .

    I love the tones. The photos look incredible.

    Posted September 7, 2008 at 9:39 am | Permalink
  2. Emilee said . . .

    Ooo… I LOVE these black & whites!! And the ones of Teddy - adorable! He’s got such great expressions! :D

    Posted September 7, 2008 at 10:16 am | Permalink
  3. nicole said . . .

    That shot of the tight thin crop on the eyes is MARVELOUS! One of my favorites of yours to date.

    Posted September 7, 2008 at 11:22 am | Permalink
  4. Jill Beninato said . . .

    I love the shots of the black dog with the light colored eyes..he/she looks so velvety. I love the b/w conversions…they look a lot like film.

    Posted September 7, 2008 at 1:06 pm | Permalink
  5. Jamie 'Cowbelly' said . . .

    thanks gals! jill B- that’s funny you should say that because before I started by biz, I USED film- and only film. I reluctantly made the transition to digital only out of a need for efficiency for my new biz. Perhaps I am wanting to return to my roots? I should do a ‘from the archives’ post with some of my black and white film dog shots.

    Posted September 7, 2008 at 1:21 pm | Permalink
  6. Mia 'thousandhound' said . . .

    OMG I LOVE these. So dark and moody…my favourite type. What I wouldn’t give to know how you processed these? How about my left arm?

    Posted September 7, 2008 at 5:10 pm | Permalink
  7. Jamie 'Cowbelly' said . . .

    mia: it’s easy- email me and I will tell you. :-)

    Posted September 7, 2008 at 5:23 pm | Permalink
  8. Craig said . . .

    I love all of these. Great images!!

    Posted September 7, 2008 at 5:54 pm | Permalink
  9. Jill said . . .

    These are soooo beautiful! love them.

    Posted September 7, 2008 at 8:13 pm | Permalink
  10. leesia said . . .

    jamie, these are gorgeous — they make me miss film as well…you should definitely do an archives post!! beautiful work, as always. :)

    Posted September 8, 2008 at 10:03 am | Permalink
  11. Jessica Braun said . . .

    LOVE IT! If possible we’d like to see a few of our photos via this method if that’s part of the editing process (since we are now post pic day). AB-SO-LUTE-LY WONDERFUL!

    Posted September 8, 2008 at 11:51 am | Permalink
  12. Jamie 'Cowbelly' said . . .

    @ Jessica: thank you! I can definitely see if I have any shots of Zoe and Peanut that will work well for this process. It definitely takes a very specific type of shot. Wait till you see the ones of Zoe and her new purple ‘toy’- they are off the hook!

    Posted September 8, 2008 at 12:05 pm | Permalink
  13. manon doyle said . . .

    I also love black and white pics. They always make such an impact! Yours are gorgeous!

    Posted September 9, 2008 at 6:29 am | Permalink
  14. Melissa said . . .

    Why not one more comment - these are fabulous! Great work!

    Posted September 9, 2008 at 8:27 am | Permalink
  15. Linda O'Neill said . . .

    Wow Miss Jamie…these blow me away. I love them! The black and white really gives an added dimension to the dog’s personality. I love color photography…but sometimes there’s nothing quite like a great black and white. Nice work!

    Posted September 9, 2008 at 4:45 pm | Permalink
  16. Moira said . . .

    ooooh. These are incredible!

    Posted September 10, 2008 at 9:08 am | Permalink
  17. sabrina said . . .

    very cool! i like the change up!

    Posted September 10, 2008 at 4:31 pm | Permalink
  18. Tamandra said . . .

    Wow! I would looove to see a large print of the tight crop of the eyes. That looks amazing! Both those labs have such great expressions, love the lip configurations ha ha. (Were you making strange noises?) Great, now I’m wanting to go play around with b&w at 2 am.
    Very cool :)

    Posted September 11, 2008 at 2:12 am | Permalink
  19. Victoria said . . .

    oooh, very nice jamie! those are awesome :)

    Posted September 12, 2008 at 12:26 pm | Permalink
  20. Mark said . . .

    While I love your super-saturated color style I have to say that I think the pair of shepherd-puppy shots (second set in the sequence) are probably my absolute favorites of yours that I’ve seen to date. The texture on the nose is simply exquisite.

    Posted September 15, 2008 at 8:33 pm | Permalink
  21. robyn said . . .

    OMG you are KILLING me with these…just FABULOUS~!

    Posted September 26, 2008 at 7:56 pm | Permalink
  22. Michelle said . . .

    These are so fabulous Jamie! I just found your site tonight and I am so impressed. Your personal work is so beautiful. Everyone keeps saying these look like film and I too agree. I love your post processing on these B&W photos. I would give my right arm also to know what you did…Can I email you too? I just want to reach through the camera and give this dog a big smooch!

    Posted November 4, 2008 at 5:29 pm | Permalink

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