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P H O T O S   O F   D O G S

The photos of dogs must be considered cautiously. For some can give an image very close to the reality, but some others can also mislead - and that's one of the reasons that make me think that no one ought to publish anywhere a photo without the authorization of the dog's owner. First, the real colours aren't always reflected in the photograph. Who hasn't seen a human being with red eyes or pink or even red cheeks ? It's about the same for the dogs ! In particular, the flash often turns the eyes colour into red or white, or the brown colour gets more or less red shade. A lot of sunlight can turn brown colour into yellow shade, especially in the eyes. The coat colour can change according to the light too. When the coat is dark, the photo must be pale enough to make details be seen ; some colours can be lightened without be turned into another colour, but some others can't : for example, the lightened black can show blue, grey, brown or even reddish-brown shades.

At the top : This dog's eyes are dark brown in the center, and light brown (but brown, and not yellow) on the outside ; the 3 photos give different ideas, nonetheless, the right one makes this fact be sure : the center is darker than the outer part. At the bottom : this dog's eyes are dark brown, like the left photo shows ; on the photo in the middle, a paler spot appears, it's due to the sunlight and doesn't exist in the real eye ; in the right photo, the eyes don't receive the same amount of light, and so the colour appears quite different.

What is the real colour of this dog ? Dark brown, paler brown, reddish brown ? Only the owner can know in such a case. At the bottom, right : the black colour can show different shades, it's impossible to know if these shades exist in reality, or if they are due only to the lightened photo. At the bottom, left : the two dogs appear with different shades of black ; it's impossible to know if in reality the two coats are slightly different, or if this is due to the different light which results from the different distance.

Of course, according to the camera angle, the dog can appear in different ways - and that's another reason that makes me think that no one ought to publish a photo without the authorization of the dog's owner : some photos can give a bad image of the dog, but also a wrong idea of him, and  I do consider that, before publishing, the owner must see the photo, only the owner can really know if his dog is correctly reflected. In particular, the head morphology can appear very differently according to the camera angle ; the overall look too can be changed according to the camera angle.

At the top : this dog could be seen as a dog with short legs on the left and the right photos, while the one in the middle shows long legs ; in the left photo, the winter coat, with long hair, is one of the causes of this impression, while in the middle, the moulting coat let the long legs be seen. At the bottom : this dog has a long muzzle, but according to the camera angle, the muzzle length can appear more or less shorter or longer than it is.

You must got a lot of photos of a dog's head to try to get a right view of it's real morphology, because according to the camera angles, the impressions can be very different. This dog has really a long muzzle, a slight stop, a neither too rounded (only slightly oval) nor too bulky skull (the difference of level between the higher part of the skull and the muzzle is small enough) ; the upper photos square with the real facts ; the 3 photos at the bottom would make you think that he has strong stop, bulky or even rounded skull, and that's wrong.

Dogs change with time - of course ! If a photo gets neither date nor age of the dog, no one can be sure that it squares with the adult in his normal coat. The most changes in a dog's look are due to the age and the moult - or sometimes health problems. The coat doesn't always make you sure that the dog is a grown-up or younger, and according to the age, the morphology changes. If you can't know - nor guess - the age of a dog, you can't know if his morphology, his coat, his overall look, etc, square to a grown-up in normal conditions or not.

The overall look changes a lot with time.

The coat too changes a lot with time.

The head morphology changes a lot during the growth, and so it's important to know if the photo shows a growing dog or a grown-up.

These few examples are meant to illustrate this point of view of mine - I want to say that photos must be given in large enough quantities to be really representative. Nevertheless, it's generally difficult to be completely sure of what the dog is really.

04/12/07 Isabelle Coquinot

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