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Cat & Mouse cc – first ever so all advice appreciated!
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Hi All,
This is my first cc (as the title might suggest) so be brutal, all constructive comments and advice is really appreciated.
Shot with EF50mm & f1.8 for 1/60Personally, I’m quite happy with the photo and think it brings out some of the cat’s “personality” but am more interested in the technical side of things.
How is the DOF and light?
Is the photo too soft and if so, any advice?I used the bridge to try to sharpen the details
Does the fact that some of his body is missing from the picture detract a lot from it as a whole?
There’s a bit of dirt on the floor infront of the cat & mouse, ideally should this be removed?
Thanks a lot!
Thanks
I think the Image is very soft, the focus point is in the bottom right of the shot (the floor is sharper)
What probably happened is you chose a large aperture (f1.8 ) and the point of focus became the floor , therefore you have no DOF at all , hence the cat and the mouse are out of focus.
Black cats will ” fool” your metering system anyway, as soon as you focus on it, the camera wants to increase the speed/aperture to achieve 18% grey. So you have to compensate for that error,manually
Hope that makes some kind of sense?
EDIT: just noticed it was shot at f1.8
Yep, all makes a lot of sense. So would I be better off bumping the aperture and focusing manually instead?
I think for the composition I’d either prefer the whole cat to be in the frame OR a tighter crop in on the cat. Imagine splitting your image onto 3 columns (roughly) and only using the middle section.
Whatever the main point of interest in your photo, should be sharp, either manually or auto
Hi Richard,
I tried this as well?
What do you think??
https://www.photographyireland.net/viewtopic.php?t=21683&highlight=
OJ
Hi, and welcome to the forum Richard,
You’ll learn a lot here, forums are great for picking up tips and for constructive criticism when asked for.
I assume your lens is the little Canon 50mm f1.8, if so, it’s a cracking lens for the money.
On the image, as others have said its a little soft, i think you’ve focussed on the mouse and the wide aperture (f1.8) has meant that very little in front of and behind your focus point is sharp. No amount of photoshop will fix this unforunately. I’d suggest an aperture of between f5.6 and f11. That particular lens (and most in general) tend to be sharpest between f8-f11. If in doubt, use the Depth of field preview button to ensure that everything you want in focus is in focus. (Little button on camera front left near lens mount).
Also you have a shutter speed of 1/60sec. The rule of thumb is that hand held shots need to have a minimum of a shutter speed greater than the focal length of the lens to be sharp, even in the steadiest of hands. Personally i like mine to be double, so for 50mm, i’d like 1/100sec or faster! (getting old you see :oops: ) If you can’t achieve the shutter speed then use a higher ISO to raise the shutter speed.
When you shoot anything with Eyes, then focus on them. Every critic will look for good sharpness on the eyes of the subject.
If i were you, i’d try this again, but put camera on Av, ISO to 400, Aperture to f5.6 and try to achieve a shutter speed of 1/100sec or greater. Or if you have a tripod, use that and then the shutter speed can be less.
When you shoot anything with Eyes, then focus on them. Every critic will look for good sharpness on the eyes of the subject.
Well thats the technical side of things, but i think if you’re happy then thats all that really matters. I hope that helps, and keep posting :)
Thanks a lot all
Orange_Juice : Very good :D Very different cat and mouse though :p
richy5497 : Thanks a lot for the in depth advice, as you can appreciate I’m only getting on my feet really (am currently making my way through Understanding Exposure). I was actually quite happy with the photo initially until I went cropping/zooming with it and saw how out of focus it was, from a distance it looks lovely though :) I think the idea was/is nice and it has the potential to be a good picture, will hopefully get Senor on another overcast afternoon and try to get something similar.
Cheers for the welcome too!
Welcome to the site Richard
If you try again it might be interesting to see the cats face and paw in focus – the body and background softly blurred would look well i think. choose an aperture of F8 to start, focus on the cats eyes or front paw depending on the look you want – press the shutter halfway and hold, recompose so the image is how you want and press shutter all the way
experiment with different apertures – as Richy5497 says use AV mode as it will change shutter speed automatically – if shutter speed is less than length of your lens – in this case 50mm? increase your ISO until shutter speed shows higher than length of lens
I think you have a great idea and lovely picture trying to be taken so try again and have fun :)
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