Fully Manual Shot of my Cat

[NicoleScraps]

I am trying to practice and wrap my head around using the manual settings. I feel like I have a fairly good grasp on AV, but I need to work on full manual. So I crawled around on the floor today chasing my cat, changing settings and all that to see if I could get one to work.
I realize that this photo is not WOW. It is a cat. Yeah, I get that. I am not asking about the composure of this shot.
What I am looking for is critique on the exposure. That was the purpose of this photo, to practice manual exposure. I think I got it right. Maybe.



f/4.5
1/25 sec
ISO-400

I used auto WB cause that area still has me stumped.

Thanks in advance.

[candidrachel]

I think its lovely but then I am biased because your cat looks like my Buster.

[candleman]

exposure.. well you did pretty well.. i would boost it by about +0.5 EV in RAW

theres not enough detail in the dark fur, and the eyes need to be brighter.


as for your EXIF
1/25th is very very slow (what was your focal length?)

as a rule of thumb, to reduce motion blur caused by hand shake, use the 1/focallength rule


so if you're at 50mm you needd about 1/50th as a shutterspeed to be sure you have a crisp shot and no blur caused by your hand shaking. NOTE: this is for a stationary subject... if your subject is moving you need a faster shutterspeed.

i hope that helps

[NicoleScraps]

Originally Posted by candleman

i would boost it by about +0.5 EV in RAW

I am sorry. I have no idea what that means.

Originally Posted by candleman

(what was your focal length?)

I had my longer lens on, so I was probably at about 55-60 mm, just a guess based on where we were at the time (I can't get on my computer with the original photo right now).
So you are saying that I would have done better with making my shutter speed at about /1/50 to 1/60 sec as far as focus goes? Hmm, then how do I adjust for the lesser amount of light that would cause. I had my aperture open as much as I could with the lens. I guess bump up the ISO?
Dude I need a better lens I think.

[candleman]

Originally Posted by NicoleScraps

I am sorry. I have no idea what that means.

basically make it brighter in photoshop
1 EV = 1 camera "exposure" stop

so basically what i'm saying is its under exposed by at least 1/2 a stop ....so you need to brighten it up in photoshop.

Originally Posted by NicoleScraps

Hmm, then how do I adjust for the lesser amount of light that would cause. I had my aperture open as much as I could with the lens. I guess bump up the ISO?
.

YUP! dead right

your ISo was 400

exposure stpos for ISo are
100 200 400 800 1600 ..etc ..etc

(each stop doubles or halves the amount of light)

SO, you would have had exactly the same image at
ISO800 1/50th f/4

Now that we have a fast enough shuterspeed.. we still need to make it brighter, because this image is the same exposure just different settings... so to make it easy... you could go up another notch on the ISO to 1600
OR, if you have a faster lens.. open up on the aperture by one stop... which from f/4 would be f/2.8


i'm sure i've over explained it and confused you even more now.

[NicoleScraps]

Originally Posted by candleman

SO, you would have had exactly the same image at
ISO800 1/50th f/4

BUT, with a better focus, right?
Gotcha.
Thanks for the help!

[candleman]

you did well for your first time... sorry if thats all too confusing

Originally Posted by NicoleScraps

BUT, with a better focus, right?
Gotcha.
Thanks for the help!

...kinda.. not better "focus", just the portions of the frame that are in focus will be crisper as you wont have any motion blur from movement.

[NicoleScraps]

Well, I am less confused than I was a couple of weeks ago. So that is a good thing. I am getting there.
About 6 years ago, a friend of the family who has been a photographer for a long long time tried to teach me how to use a film slr camera. Oh. My Gawd. That was confusing.
This, digital, is a little easier.
Thanks again for your help.

[Glayva]

This is not an easy shot to take. The biggest problem is the very wide tonal range of the cat - from bright white fur to jet black. Hardly any digital camera can record both with any accuracy. It would be better to expose for the black fur and you would need to increase your exposure for this by at least one whole stop.

If you are hand holding you must have your shutter speed at least equal to the focal length of your lens and certainly no less than 1/125 sec. Increase your ISO if necessary so that you can have a reasonable depth of field. I would suggest f8.

The image would improve if the cat had been slightly turned to left or right and the lighting would have shown the fur detail better. Focus on the eyes as with any portrait.

Yes, the background is not helpful and is distracting but you could improve this in Photoshop.