BackWoods Cat

[johnjuan57]

This is another attempt at gettin a shot of the family cat. I Liked the idea of the woods behind her and I tryed to remember the 3rd rules. This photo is untouched. I would like to know about composition and lighting please. Are they close? Thanks very much............John

Camera Fujifilm FinePix S1000fd
Exposure 0.3
Aperture f/8.0
Focal Length 70.8 mm
ISO Speed 64

[karen_s]

Well, I think you did pretty well. Love the eye contact and colors look good. As far as exposure, it looks like you might have a few hot spots on the white fur and lost some detail. It doesn't ruin the shot for me though because the eyes are so powerful.

Black and white animals (or any scene of super high contrast) is a challenge. I try to get it as best as I can in camera but find I usually have to resort to the dodge and burn tool in PP. I shoot in RAW format and aim to keep the details in the whites while trying to keep the blacks from filling in too much.

As far as composition, for my eye it's a bit static. Not bad or wrong by any means, just static. It really doesn't hit the thirds for me and here is why ...

1. The whole of the subject really takes up the left half rather than falling on an intersection of the lines that create the thirds. The image kinda splits in two rather than three.
2. I look at the eyes first and they fall right in middle too. This is not wrong, just maybe a little less dynamic than it could be, for me anyway.

If it were mine, I would be tempted to try a vertical crop where the entire right half is gone and the eyes fall on the line of the upper third. The eyes are so good here I would exploit them.

Anyway, in the end, the shot is very nice as is. It's especially nice because you have more than one option to make it work and tell more than one story with it.

[johnjuan57]

Thanks Karen, for a great critique. I played around with it a little, and came up with this. Is it somewhat closer, or am I way off. Thanks again for putting so much time into my photo.