How do photographers take good pictures of cats?

How do photographers take good pictures of cats? You need to remember these shooting techniques and composition rules!

When shooting, kittens get nervous because of strangers. So we must first create a comfortable shooting environment. You must move very carefully in front of the cat, don't move suddenly, don't make any noise, and let the animals gradually adapt to your appearance and movements. Cats are curious and can use this to attract cats.

For the photo shooting of cats, it is best to choose the simplest background, and it is best to set off the background color and match the color of eyes, because we will pay attention to the color of cats' eyes.

When shooting, the photographer must control the camera with one hand and play with the kitten with the other hand to attract its attention. Therefore, it is more convenient to use a light and easy-to-operate fixed-focus lens. However, if you shoot at the maximum aperture, the kitten itself will become too blurred to focus on the eyes of moving animals, so it is worthwhile to use the aperture of f/4 to f/5.6. Highlight the expressive eyes of the object with a reflector and shoot at a small angle to attract people's attention to the beauty of the pet.

Ef50mm f/1.4 USMEOS 5d Mark III/Ef50mm f/1.4 USM/FL: 50mm (f/5.6,1100s)/ISO/kloc-0.

Eos 5d mark iii/ef 50mm f/1.4 USM/fl: 50mm/manual exposure (f/5.6,1125s) /ISO 125/WB: manual exposure.

Be sure to gently wipe the hair around the kitten's eyes before shooting.

Cats' eyes are prone to tears, and these tears tend to make little cats look dirty around their eyes. Before shooting, please check around the kitten's eyes and gently wipe with a cotton swab or soft cloth.

Eos 5d mark iii/ef 50mm f/1.4usm/fl: 50mm/manual exposure (f/3.2,1125s) /ISO 125/WB: manual exposure.

Give the kitten a "shelter" and make it feel relaxed.

Both adult cats and young cats like to "shelter" a towel, a blanket and a box to make themselves feel relaxed. Kittens like to hide in narrow and dark places. Try to take pictures of the kitten when it is hiding, and you can take beautiful pictures. Please note that kittens don't like smooth surfaces, so please take this into account when choosing shooting locations.

A bright-eyed kitten hidden in a towel. Eos 5d mark iii/ef 50mm f/1.4usm/fl: 50mm/manual exposure (f/5.6,1125s) /ISO 125/WB: manual exposure.

Brighten the cat's eyes with a mirror.

Animals have reflections in their eyes, which makes people more vivid. To produce this kind of reflection, you can use a flashlight or a studio monomer with a photographic umbrella as a scatterer, and you need to pay attention to the use of scattered light.

Photo umbrella combined with soft box

Note-A circular umbrella will cause circular glare to the eyes, while the light scattering using a rectangular soft box will cause the glare shape to become rectangular accordingly.

The camera provides stable illumination, which makes the shooting smoother.

If possible, try not to use a flash when shooting adult cats, or use a soft light box to flash on the camera. Sudden bright light will greatly scare the cat. You can use the light outside the window instead of the flash (choose a sunny and well-lit room to shoot), open the aperture, reduce the shutter speed and/or improve ISO. Another option is to use a controlled led light source, which can start with very low LED light intensity and then gradually increase until the cat is used to emitting light.

Use continuous shooting.

The direction of cat's movement is usually difficult to predict, so the photographer should not forget the continuous shooting mode, and will receive a group of photos, and there will always be several successful photos in the series.

When shooting a moving cat, try to use continuous autofocus, and the camera should have a fast autofocus system.

Shoot animals from different angles

When the kitten is used to you, please shoot from different angles. You can get interesting photos by shooting from the lowest position. Try to shoot from the horizontal position of animal eyes, not from above or below.