I think this is an excellent challenge. I have photographed my cat a few times before, but I don't have too many shots of him that I really like. I was reading some in the April issue of Shutterbug this week about portrait photography, and a lot of what I read can and should be used in pet portraits as well. It's easy enough to do a portrait photo of a person or a pet, but it's a little more challenging to try to capture something about the personality of the subject in the process.
My cat is extremely difficult to photograph. He usually runs the other way or wants to lick my lens when I get the camera out. For this experiment, I got out the laser pointer (our favorite toy) and let him chase the dot around the room for a while. Once I get him excited, he will run around and stop... hiding behind shoes and other miscellaneous crap on my living room floor. He will also stop occasionally to chase his tail, which is when I got this particular image. I called his name and he rolled back and looked at me for a brief second.
In order to get enough light inside for a fast shutter speed, I used two flashes (Canon 550EX) and just set my camera in manual mode for f/4 and 1/100" @ ISO 100.
EXIF:
File: CRW_9911.CRW
File size: 5,052KB
Image Serial Number: 299-9911
Camera Model: Canon EOS 10D
Camera serial number: 1020300016
Firmware: Firmware Version 2.0.1
Owner: John M. Setzler, Jr.
Date/Time: 2005:04:01 21:58:28
Shutter speed: 1/100 sec
Aperture: 4
Exposure mode: Manual
Flash: External E-TTL
Flash EF guide number: 2047.97
Metering mode: Evaluative
Drive mode: Continuous
ISO: 100
Lens: 70 to 200mm
Focal length: 200mm
Subject distance: 1.94 m
AF mode: One-shot AF
Focus point: [- - O - -]
Image size: 3072 x 2048
Image quality: Raw
White balance: Auto
Color space: AdobeRGB
Saturation: Normal
Sharpness: Normal
Contrast: Normal
Tone: Normal
Custom Functions:
CFn 2: Shutter release w/o CF card: Not possible
CFn 6: Tv/Av and exposure level: 1/3 stop
CFn 7: AF point registration: all
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Those eyes! And the angle. I love how cats turn themselves practically inside out. This is too good for words. I love the contrast and the whole composition. Good job.
Two things that esp caught my attention, 1 how you got a quick action shot in low enough light to get those pupils so big. Even in play mode the pupils are not fully dialated in decent lighting. Kudos on your expertise there. 2 I love the dof and the clear texture in the rug. Some might think it distracts but for me it adds interest and leads you to his captivating expression! Wonderful focus, you even got the texture around the pupils!
Love the composition of this shot. Its very narrow, which brings out the eyes; the frame helps too. DOF is quite interesting. Someone i would've wished not to see the bottom left portion of the shot which is not in focus, but seems to use a little too much of the pic and catches my eyes everytime. Would also've wished for a tiny bit more of those hears. 7
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