Indoor/Low-light Cat Shot - Flash use?

[alstauffer]

Hello, long time lurker here at dps, and have been receiving/reading the newsletter and articles here for the past 6 months or so, and finally decided to sign up and start getting involved, and get some feedback directly on some of my pictures.

My main subject lately has been my now 3.5-month-old kittens. They're indoor cats, and my apartment is fairly poorly lit, and they're very active so I find that I just about always have to use the flash to get anything worth keeping. I'm relatively new to DSLR's and adjustable flash, so I don't know if what I'm doing is proper, but below is a shot I managed to grab while one of the kittens was taking a break. As you can probably see in the reflection in his eye, the flash is bounced off of an off-white wall to his left and the white ceiling. How is the lighting in this shot? Is there something I could have done differently to improve it? Is the composition alright? I tend to like many of my photos, and my girlfriend probably wouldn't tell me if she didn't, so thoughts on the image as a whole from a third party would be appreciated as well.


P9178681-17 by alstauffer, on Flickr

Camera was an Olympus E-520 with the 14-42mm kit lens at 42mm f5.6, ISO 200, 1/80. FL-36 shoe-mount flash was used on 'auto' directed as told above.

Thanks for looking!

[Brookeabee123]

I personally love this shot. The lighting in it is very good and does a great job of capturing your subject (which by the way is adorable ). Really my only complaint is that it's a little bit crooked. Can't tell if it was intentionally or not, but it is very distracting! Other than that, I really like this picture!

[alstauffer]

Originally Posted by Brookeabee123

I personally love this shot. The lighting in it is very good and does a great job of capturing your subject (which by the way is adorable ). Really my only complaint is that it's a little bit crooked. Can't tell if it was intentionally or not, but it is very distracting! Other than that, I really like this picture!

Thank you very much for the kind words! As for the crookedness, the cat is actually sitting on the hard top from my Miata covered in a blanket (no outdoor storage space at my apartment, sadly) which slants downwards, and the guitar in the background is leaning on a stand which might be causing the crooked look? Because of the slope of what he was sitting on I tried to use his eyes to judge 'level' but that may not have been the best approach.

[Meaghan Foster]

I personally love this shot! I love cats, and this is adorable. The lighting it perfect and you got the cat to look at the camera which is hard to get animals to do.

Good Job!!

[RLucas]

Originally Posted by alstauffer

Thank you very much for the kind words! As for the crookedness, the cat is actually sitting on the hard top from my Miata covered in a blanket (no outdoor storage space at my apartment, sadly) which slants downwards, and the guitar in the background is leaning on a stand which might be causing the crooked look? Because of the slope of what he was sitting on I tried to use his eyes to judge 'level' but that may not have been the best approach.

Originally Posted by Meaghan Foster

I personally love this shot! I love cats, and this is adorable. The lighting it perfect and you got the cat to look at the camera which is hard to get animals to do.

Good Job!!

Really nothing to critique here. I love it as well! It's a really nice shot. I love it even more that I can sort of make out the Les Paul in the back ground.

[zona5101]

lighting is just great. Bouncing was certainly a good choice. I like the vignette, I like the guitar in the background. he needs a pic in his paw - that would really make the viewer wonder

[alstauffer]

Originally Posted by Meaghan Foster

I personally love this shot! I love cats, and this is adorable. The lighting it perfect and you got the cat to look at the camera which is hard to get animals to do.

Good Job!!

Thank you! Luckily for me, the noise of the camera focusing generally gets their attention enough for them to look. When they're in a playful mood, or aren't so tired, they come right up to the lens to investigate, which can make for some comical pictures if I'm quick enough to adjust.

Originally Posted by RLucas

Really nothing to critique here. I love it as well! It's a really nice shot. I love it even more that I can sort of make out the Les Paul in the back ground.

Thank you very much - and good eye on the Les Paul

Originally Posted by zona5101

lighting is just great. Bouncing was certainly a good choice. I like the vignette, I like the guitar in the background. he needs a pic in his paw - that would really make the viewer wonder

Thanks I don't know if I could arrange a pick in his paw, but I certainly catch him often enough with them in his mouth! He and his sister also love to run back and forth across my pedalboard and sometimes jump when one of the lights turn on when they click the pedal 'on' - it's very entertaining.

I put this picture up on another forum today as well and seem to be getting a lot of criticism on this, especially because the color/white balance isn't accurate - do others see this as an issue? The lighting in my apartment seems to have a yellowish tint, so this is how I see the cat day-to-day, and has a very 'warm' feeling to me. Criticism is that the color is 'wrong', but is it really that important for this type of photograph that the color be 100% accurate? Like I said, I'm new to all of this, and pretty much don't know what I'm doing, so I'm genuinely curious.

[zona5101]

the white balance is off...but it didn't concern me - it looked/felt like you toned it that way in post. So is it important? Ya probably important to know especially if you didn't indent for it to have the tint. Important enough to "fix" meh, i like the tone and wouldn't change it - others may feel differently.