My BB

[kiat]

Model: Bon Bon (3.5 years old and I think she is very cute)
Shot with a 50mm prime lens @ f1.8, ISO1000 (I think). Handheld as I find that shooting at home with tripod with poor lighting and animals with lightning reflexes do not work.
Light source: Natural afternoon light from the window supplemented by normal room light. No flash
Background: 2 pieces of coloured paper from Popular
No cropping, no PS except for resizing for uploading.

Appreciate your comments on this photo.

Pet photography is tough work epecially with cats. They move so fast and fidget so much resulting in lot of unuseable images. I used to get only 2 or 3 useable shots out of 1 roll of film. With a fast prime lens, my keep rate is slightly better but still not as good as I hope it to be.

 

[paxluv]

I like the contrast of the gray on the golden color. Nice.. That cat is silly.

 

[Patryk]

With the constraints you have listed, i understand why the shot is pretty underexposed. With some retouching with PS, contrast and colours would be improved... It seems that it lacks sharpness, which i guess was from a slow shutter speed.

For subjects such as pets, where i can't have total control, i prefer obtaining lighting that would give me the fastest shutter speed without opening up the apreture too big; this is so that when i got my focus locked on, especially for close-ups, slight movements won't screw up the exact spot i'm focussing on. (Many times i have done portraits where i got the eyebrows in focus rather than the eyes). I would say the same would apply for pets/animals, due to their unpredictable nature.

You could try bounce flash, as i have made some 'studio' looking shots in my own room. Experiment and try different combinations that would work for you.

All the best with those pets...

 

[raptor84]

It would have worked better with a closer crop to hlep the composition , You did a pretty good job given your contraints. I have a touch time shooting the cats at the SPCA due to the bad lighitng too. The best way to shoot pets is to anticipate where they might be and wait for them its how i get most of my shots unsing ambient light in 200 iso