Meet Louis. Louis is a Cocker Spaniel with a gorgeous black coat, long black ears, dark eyes and a black nose too! He has paws the size of a bear and has a very vocal greeting accompanied by a madly wagging tail.

A completely black dog can be a challenge to photograph as it is important that the features are visible and don't get lost. It might seem a little counter intuitive then to photograph him on a black leather sofa with the light mostly behind him! However, the back light gave a gorgeous 'halo' effect which separated him from the back ground and as it was at a side angle to him it also picked out the fabulous curly fur on his ear and provided a catch light in his eye too. A little tweaking in PS5 allowed me to slightly exaggerate the highlights to pick out more detail and to add a little dodge and burning to the ear to give it more texture. I'm very happy with the result as was Louis' owner.