Nap Time!

[Kyle]

I took some time today to get to know my camera. I wanted to get to know what every button and every function did. I think I have really started to figure it out. While doing some experimenting my three cats volunteered to be my subjects. The were of course napping in different areas of the room.

While taking these I really tried to focus on composition. I took some time to look at the scene before taking a shot rather than just shooting 500 pictures and hoping one turned out. I tried out many different perspectives as well.
The lighting in my apartment is not adequate so it made this a little challenging. The small windows I have are frosted so they don't let in much natural light and the overhead lights are not very bright. I don't like to rely on the camera's flash if I don't have to (don't want to blind my pets). It was neat trying to find ways to overcome this.

First up is Oz. I've already posted a few pictures of her so I only took a couple and this one is one of the better ones. The chair she was lying on is a little worn out, which I found very distracting so I attempted to tone it down without making it look like she was sitting on nothing.


Next is Dundas. My partner and I adopted him about a month ago. He's quite a big cat but has some really nice colour to him.
There is quite a bit of noise in this picture. I may have forgot to turn down the ISO.




Last (but not least!) is Tegan, the baby of the bunch. She was also a rescue who had lived in a shelter her whole life. She's VERY shy but she is really starting to come around. Today was the first time I was able to pet her without her running to the corner of the room first.
She was very challenging to shoot. Her fur is very dark but she was sitting in a bright pink bed. Any shots I took either had the bed too bright or her too dark.
This first shot is a good example of that. The background was a bright pink which was very distracting. I really tried to tone it down in post-processing. There was also a distracting hair that crossed in-front of her right eye that I was able to remove in Photoshop (getting better with the clone tool). The right side of her face isn't in focus as much as I would have liked but it's hard to notice these things on the tiny screen.


This picture was another challenging one. I really liked the angle but the bed kept getting in the way. Unfortunately I had no room to move to keep the bed out of it. I'm not sure if the bottom left is too distracting but it is near impossible to crop out without ruining the shot.


All c&c is welcome of course.

[Shadowman]

Nice series.

[IzzieK]

Love them all and love the commentary for each too...composition is just right, OK I have no gripes about the composition but I like the expression of all of them except the sleepy one. They each shows different characteristics, looks, poses. #1 and 2 have the best pose of all of them, soft, gentle.. and catty.

[NorthernFocus]

As a whole I think you did quite well. You were tighter on Tegan which can be challenging. For example the first shot of Tegan only has one eye in focus. And the coloring in the two is dramatically different presumably due to auto WB wandering a bit.

Poking around and practicing like that can be fun and informative. And as a bonus you get some shots of your pets.

[Kyle]

Thanks for the comments everyone, I appreciate it. It was quite fun to take these and I learned quite a bit.

[Stagecoach]

Kyle,

You did some good work here and it's a great way to practice with your camera.

For me if you had got the eyes on Oz in good focus that would have been one really superb image with that pose.

Grahame

[bnnrcn]

Hi Kyle,somethimes cropping from left,right and bottom and leaving only the eyes gives good results with cats.Your last photo seems suitable for such a trial if you want

[Kyle]

For me if you had got the eyes on Oz in good focus that would have been one really superb image with that pose.
Grahame

Thanks Grahame, I'll keep that in mind for next time. I kept the camera in Av mode the whole time with the aperature at max in an attempt to keep the backgrounds out of the photos. This room isn't really good for taking shots right now. I was so focused on looking at compensation and watching the histogram on the camera that I did not take enough time to review the shots on the camera. I find the 3' screen on the Rebel T3 doesn't show enough detail so it can be easy to miss that certain spots are out of focus. I know I can zoom in on images on the screen, I guess I have to learn to start doing that to make 100% sure that the photo is to my liking.

Hi Kyle,somethimes cropping from left,right and bottom and leaving only the eyes gives good results with cats.Your last photo seems suitable for such a trial if you want

I had the same thought as you, Binnur, when I first looked at the photo. I wasn't sure it it would work so I stayed away from it. I tried it again and I'm still not sure what I think of it. I find that cropping it that much really brings out the noise from the high ISO I had to use.

[deetheturk]

Well done Kyle,lovely cats bud!

[bnnrcn]

Even if there is some noise I still like it Kyle.The look is nice in green eyes and the colour of the fure makes good contrast with the eyes.You could have left some more space at the top,IMO that might give you a nice composition too

Thanks Grahame, I'll keep that in mind for next time. I kept the camera in Av mode the whole time with the aperature at max in an attempt to keep the backgrounds out of the photos. This room isn't really good for taking shots right now. I was so focused on looking at compensation and watching the histogram on the camera that I did not take enough time to review the shots on the camera. I find the 3' screen on the Rebel T3 doesn't show enough detail so it can be easy to miss that certain spots are out of focus. I know I can zoom in on images on the screen, I guess I have to learn to start doing that to make 100% sure that the photo is to my liking.




I had the same thought as you, Binnur, when I first looked at the photo. I wasn't sure it it would work so I stayed away from it. I tried it again and I'm still not sure what I think of it. I find that cropping it that much really brings out the noise from the high ISO I had to use.

[Kyle]

Even if there is some noise I still like it Kyle.The look is nice in green eyes and the colour of the fure makes good contrast with the eyes.You could have left some more space at the top,IMO that might give you a nice composition too

I'll play around with the crop and see if I can get anything better out of it. Thanks again for all of the comments/advice!