Closeup photo of our kitten

Please critique this photo I took of our cat. Personally, I like the closeup look of the image. The only area that bugs me is the window which is blown out.

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/pyXS​YW

Kittens are always fun. I suggest making sure the eye is in focus. Hard to do with that DoF, but it makes a big difference.

i don't mind the blown highlights in the window, but actually, there is some detail there that might be brought out if you shot RAW. But again, i think pushing them to be completely blown might be as good as trying to recover them.

I'd like to see the cat's nose.

Actually, I don't think the window would have contributed to the image if it weren't blown out. This way you have a non-distracting background and the eye is drawn to your subject. It looks like the cheek had the camera's focus. This means that the eye is slightly out of focus. For portraits, it's essential that the eye have the focus. Don't trust your camera to make the right decision. Lots of times, experienced photographers use only one focus point and use it on the most important stuff. A word about composition: it feels a tiny bit unbalanced because the cat is looking toward the right edge. A little more room here and less on the left would have improved the balance I think.

tandemhearts wrote in post #17257430
Kittens are always fun. I suggest making sure the eye is in focus. Hard to do with that DoF, but it makes a big difference.

Thank you for the feedback.

Keeping her still long enough to take a photo is difficult enough. I use the "focus and recompose" technique and could've sworn I had the center point on her eye before recomposing (I do use back-button focusing so the shutter doesn't cause the camera to refocus).

Maybe next time, I'll shoot at f/8 or f/11 to make sure more winds up in focus.

Shot at f/8, frame a bit looser so there is space in the direction of the stare, and make the background darker than the subject (either in post or while composing the scene).

hes gone wrote in post #17257435
=he's gone;17257435]i don't mind the blown highlights in the window, but actually, there is some detail there that might be brought out if you shot RAW. But again, i think pushing them to be completely blown might be as good as trying to recover them.

I'd like to see the cat's nose.

I did shoot in RAW. Maybe I'll try and brush in a bit lower exposure around the window to see if it recovers any details. I'd have to double check but I believe I pulled the highlights all the way down in Lr.

I'm pretty impressed that you were able to capture this shot at all. Whenever my cats see me getting close to them with a camera, they either give me a dirty look or they get up and leave.

I don't mind the blown out window and I like the aperture that you used. I agree that the eye isn't quite in focus and I too wish that there was just a TINY bit more room on the right to give the cat "room to look". However, the part that I would like most to change is the blanket on the lower right side; I too want to see your kitten's cute, little nose and not have my view blocked by a blurry, white mass. I'd also like a millimeter more space above the cat's right ear so that I don't feel like she's having the little hairs chopped off. Overall though, great job on a subject that's tough to get to sit still.

I like it. If I were to be pedantic I'd say shoot with a slightly smaller aperture to get a bit more of the cat's nose in focus, and give a tiny bit of headroom to the ear at the top (just 5mm of headroom is enough). The rest is great!

I agree with most of what's been said: would love to see the cat's nose, and have the eye in focus. Further, I'd prefer the window to be, if not completely blown out, then mostly blown out. We don't know what the furball is perceiving out the window, so having the window gone leaves the viewer wondering what's going on in her head.

Or something like that. I think I need more coffee.

I just saw this in the "Cats" thread and almost commented about how much I liked it! Having a kitten myself, I know how challenging it is to get good photos. You have gotten some great advice already, so I'll just say, I like it!