My Cat at 8am this morning...

[jamesfitzmaurice]

Ok go easy on me, this is my 1st post on here, I only got my Canon 350D at Christmas and it's my 1st SLR so it's a steep learning curve to say the least. This was the scene that greeted me as I came down the stairs into the kitchen this morning, our cat mambo staring out through the blinds as the cold blue morning light silhouetted him. I grabbed my camera and grabbed a few shots, see what you think, advice always welcome :D

http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c189/jamesfitzmaurice/mambosmallweb.jpg

P.S I read the posting guidelines and edited the photo down to 800x600 so I hope it's not too big.

[jamner]

Welcome to POTN. You will find a lot of helpful tips and great advice on this board. I think this is a decent shot for just learning. I would try to brighten up a little bit in photoshop by playing with the levels and maybe crop it a little bit on the left side. Keep shooting and posting, I look forward to seeing more of your stuff.

[mijbril]

The usual things apply here

Lighting - interesting with the blue sheen, works on the cat, not so on the plant.
Composition - pretty good though you might try a slightly tighter crop on the subject(s)
Focus - seems a little out.

Cats make great models whether they are willing or not. Hope to see more :)

[jamesfitzmaurice]

Thanks for the welcome and advice, the soft focus is due to my not noticing the camera was still on manual focus and because I had been playing around with iso levels the night before it was also on iso1600, Doh! As for the crop, well I've tried that and posted below, I'll post more shots as I get them :)
http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c189/jamesfitzmaurice/smallcroppedweb.jpg

[elise1030]

I hope you don't mind but I had a quick play with it. I just cropped and sharpened it a little.

[jamesfitzmaurice]

Thanks Elise, I like the crop, I never know how much to crop but I guess that's just experience :)

[Ferrari 1]

I love it, and I'm not even a cat guy. Just love the blue.....

[jamesfitzmaurice]

Thanks Ferrari :)