A shot of wifes cat: Princess

[ChristopherJ1968]

lighting situation: diningroom table 6-10 feet away. otherwise dark. The lighting will be a light orange. I guess incandescent(sp?) they are bulbs that look like candles with fancy tips, 25W bulbs. Have had this rig about 2 months and am just trying to get practise. boring or not? ALL comments welcome..

setting for shot: Av
F: 22
ISO 800
Exposure time: 20 seconds
AEB: +1

http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/3300/img0172xo4.jpg

[Robert_Lay]

I think she is a little over-exposed. The composition would be a little better were she not so close to the right margin. A looser crop might have been better, because it would give us more of the setting than we see here.

Nice image.

[ChristopherJ1968]

ok thank you. thank you VERY much. I've learned something everyday here.

[kirkt]

If the cat is white, the white balance is probably critical so that she doesn't turn into an orange cat! Any reason for shooting at f/22? That is one rock-steady sleeping cat. Maybe try f/8 with the correspondingly faster shutter and/or lower ISO if you want. Once the orange cast is eliminated, then you can appreciate the over-exposure Bob points out. Did you shoot RAW? You may be able to recover some highlight detail.

Cute cat. Have fun!

Kirk

[Bill Boehme]

Where is a white balance card when you need one ... oh, wait you have one! ;)

Shooting in RAW mode will allow you to correct most light source bias problems. In this case, just sample the cat's fur with the eyedropper tool.

[LeuceDeuce]

Were you just trying out long exposures for something?

I can't imagine why you would choose settings to give you a 20 second exposure for a cat on a couch...

Did you just set the camera down on the coffee table?

[ChristopherJ1968]

Were you just trying out long exposures for something?

I can't imagine why you would choose settings to give you a 20 second exposure for a cat on a couch...

Did you just set the camera down on the coffee table?

yes. I didn't want to use a flash and make shots look like what my kids would shoot. over exposed etc. I still have the RAW files maybe change that shot to B&W?

[ForHisGlory]

I love white cats! I think the crop is too tight. The angle at which she is framed also makes her head look big.

[Bill Boehme]

I didn't notice the exposure settings initially -- I would say that they are really extreme. You will not get a very sharp image at f/22. You may have read about using small apertures, but that would apply to using a view camera and not an SLR. There is nothing wrong with using flash. You may be relating to the sharp shadow line that P&S camera produce when using flash. The built-in flash on an SLR is less of a problem because it is directly over the lens so most shadows are hidden. A much better approach is an external flash that can be rotated to bounce the light or using a bounce card.

[blackcap]

I love cat pics, but this doesn't have any interest for me. Maybe if I saw more of the cat's face? Also, why f/22? Wouldn't you want a wider aperture and less DOF?

I took this pic on the weekend. Nothing great, but I used f/2.8 and I think a shallow DOF makes things more interesting.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2420/2388032929_75086d9425.jpg

[Robert_Lay]

I love cat pics, but this doesn't have any interest for me. Maybe if I saw more of the cat's face? Also, why f/22? Wouldn't you want a wider aperture and less DOF?

I took this pic on the weekend. Nothing great, but I used f/2.8 and I think a shallow DOF makes things more interesting.

...

Yes and no. When the shallow DOF is needed for purposes of assisting in the illusion of 3-dimensionality, yes.

However, when the image has such a large percentage of the total area completely out of focus, it can be disappointing.