pet shots, c&c please

molsen

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our yellow lab, Holly, and our aging cat, Zippy. I tried to capture the old age and sickness in the pictures of the cat. as sad as it is, he is an old and very wise cat and has been through a lot...(you can see his shaved arms from being in the hospital lately)...I wanted the shots to reflect that. the dog, on the other hand, is youthful (but lazy!)

I don't really have much experience with pet portraits, or really any portraits, but I'm trying to learn. I was just using one flash (sb400 reflected off very high ceilings) + a little ambient light for these shots. Please let me know how I can improve on composition and lighting for these shots! thanks!

also, if you hate the vignetting, let me know that too! i sort of went overboard with it on some of these shots but i thought it fit the mood

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-edit- nevermind

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You really captured the cat in 7 and 8. especially 8 you can really see tired in the eyes. To sad.
 
Awesome shots! You captured such great emotion in the first picture. Everything you tried to get across is in that one picture of Zippy. You did not even need to explain what you were going for, it can all be seen by just looking at the picture.

The lab just looks very tired :). I know the cat is sick, but why is he missing fur on his front legs?
 
thanks for the responses
Awesome shots! You captured such great emotion in the first picture. Everything you tried to get across is in that one picture of Zippy. You did not even need to explain what you were going for, it can all be seen by just looking at the picture.

The lab just looks very tired :). I know the cat is sick, but why is he missing fur on his front legs?
he was hooked up to an IV for a couple weeks when he was in the hospital recently for a pancreas problems. he was so dehydrated and in bad shape that his veins were collapsed so they had to shave both legs to find a usable vein. lol but he kept pulling out the IV (he's pretty stubborn, as most cats are)
 
Well I am sure this isnt what you were going for, but I thought this pic would look good as a painting.
I personally love animal pantings.
kittypaint.jpg
 
so are there any portrait photographers here that can give me some tips? I really want to start shooting portraits soon....preferably of humans. but pets make easy practice because they're always just hanging around lol

the 50 1.8 makes a really sweet portrait lens, actually. it's really sharp at f/2.8 and even sharper at f/4-f/8 (but i prefer the shallow DOF at 2.8)
 
Vignetting is good, and don't let anyone lie and tell you it's not.

Try shooting from a lower level. When the camera is at the subject's eye level or slightly lower, it tends to look more natural than if you're aiming down at the subject.

If you have one, try using a lens around 85-105mm. (Edit: this assumes full frame. 1.6 scaling for small-frame, etc. Although, they'd still be great lengths with the scaling.) They can make great portraits due to perspective effects. Just remember to be careful about focusing on the eyes, particularly when using a telephoto and/or wide aperture. Looks like you've done that here, but it's too bright in my computer room for me to see the monitor clearly.

Speaking of eyes, adding a white reflector or flash (requires using either low ISO or telephoto lens, usually) to create catchlights is almost always helpful.

Nice work, keep it up. :thumbup:
 
re: catchlight

that actually was in most of the shots but I PSed it out because I didn't like how it looked. wups

thanks for the tips
 

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