Cat

ok my first post, been wondering what to put up as my first post and took a couple of my cat in the back garden this evening. feel free to be harsh with the comments as long as they can help me improve i won't mind - honest ;)

Don't usually photograph animals but i tried to get as low to the ground as possible without to take these to see if it made for a better picture.

great shots, i prefer the 2nd shot the most, because i find the other 2 shots are not very sharp and appear to be a tad out of focus.
try some sharpening in photoshop though:)
great work

Good sharp focus on the eyes in the first two and getting low is the way to go with animals.
I think they are cropped a bit tight and would like to see a little more space, especially by the ears.
The third one is cute but either out of focus or has motion blur

cool thanks - will try the sharpening in PS. the first one is slightly off as my lense was maxed out when taking it and I was trying to get into position for the third one so yeah it is out of focus too (damned cat won't do what he is told when he is told :) ).

I cropped the 2nd one so tight as the background is a bit of a distraction i thought (ugly old grey wall). will try some sharpening with the first one and try a recrop too - was not sure about that crop at all.

cheers.

Welcome to the forum.

The one of the cat playing is the better in my opinion as it adds some dynamism to the cat. I think you need to crop half way from the top to the cats bottom to balance it up and make sure the attention is on the cat playing.

Don't get me wrong I like the other two as well, even though their all soft a little sharpening in PS will sort that out.

On the middle one the white of the leg is a little blown so watch for that in the future. With DSLR you need to meter for the highlights more than the shadows. The shadows can be recovered whereas the highlights once blown is gone for ever.

Keep them coming.

Roger

The third image of the whole cat has the most potential because it isn't just sitting there.

As far as fixing things up after the fact in Photoshop I'd suggest you work on getting the sharpest images in camera and only going to PS as a last resort. Otherwise it will take you a lot longer to develop a steady hand and good eye-which are the essential photographers skills-not fooling around with software.YMMV

I like # 2 the best, the cat just seems so relaxed and comfortable. :) All three could be sharper, though # 2 is quite acceptable. I agree with MB that you should always shoot for the sharpest image possible before having to resort to post processing. I'm not sure if it's motion blur here or not - if so, bumping up the ISO setting and increasing the shutter speed should work. It could also be a situation where you're Auto Focus isn't working all that well.

Anyway - welcome to the PR forum.

G

Thanks lads - i couldn't agree more about the sharpness, i wasn't set at all right for the last one and thats the reason for the bluriness.

Just a question on the 2nd one though to help me for future ones, I thought it was pretty sharp so I was wondering where my failings on the sharpness are here and how best to rectify them?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jaggie

Just a question on the 2nd one though to help me for future ones, I thought it was pretty sharp so I was wondering where my failings on the sharpness are here and how best to rectify them?

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Jaggie - It is for the most part quite sharp. But if you look closely at the sharpest part, the eyes/nose (which should ALWAYS be the sharpest part btw..), it just looks a little bit soft. Not sure if this is due to the curvature of the eye balls or related. The depth of field is somewhat shallow, which may add to the feeling that it's not sharp. Contrast can increase the illusion of sharpness too - this shot has contrast in some spots, the black and white fur, but the background is somewhat close (in density, not color) to the white fur , sort of diminishing that effect.