Sleeping Cat

[cmjb4ever]

I took this shot of my cat sleeping and I really like it. I'd like some critique on the exposure and composition though. I've been interested in photography for a while, but I'm just starting to consider the more technical aspects of it. I modified it slightly in Picasa 3. Thanks!

Exif

Canon EOS Rebel T1i
Flash, Not Used
Focal Length 38 mm
Exposure .25 s (1/4)
Aperture f/4
ISO 400
Manual

[karen_s]

Exposure looks pretty good although the blacks might be a little clipped or heavy. The composition look pretty good too. The left side is a bit empty but the shadow on the wall leads me back into the image so it kinda works for me.

The only real issue I see is that nothing seems to be in focus. My guess is, looking at your shutter speed, that you may need to go a little faster. For handheld of a living breathing subject I shoot for 1/60th. You can sometimes get away with a little less and everybody has their own threshold, but 1/60th is a good place to start.

Anyway, pretty nice effort overall, just got to get that shutter speed up for a sharper shot. Everything else is there.

[WayneW]

I like your cat shot. Guess I just like cats also. I'm with Karen_s about the focus. Back in my old film days, no lenses had built-in gyroscopes (or whatever they have inside) to help eliminate camera shake, and the old standby was that your hand held shutter speed should be no slower than the reciprocal of the focal length of the lens: A 250 mm lens would not want anything slower than 1/250th of a second. Keep in mind that shutter speeds and apertures were mechanical stops, so you went from 125th of a second, to 250th, then 500th... Focus lock might help too. Focus on the eye.
Keep shooting!
Wayne

[cmjb4ever]

Thanks for the input! A bad habit of mine is using too slow shutter speeds, so it's something that I need to work on. It's also why I need a lens with a f 1.8 or 1.4 aperture. Thanks again!

[rotty022]

if you speed up your shutter speed, you would need to up your iso too. otherwise might be too dark.