cat

[mikeandsouth]

I took this about 10 minutes ago, whilst having dinner

I have slightly increased saturation, and contrast, but everything else is as it was from the camera. I took it with a large aperture and held the camera by hand.

I now notice the the main focused area is slightly towards her shoulder, which is a bit rubbish, as on the camera i thought it was focussed sharp on her face. But ah well, what do you guys think? I'm going to try and get a sharper focus on the face next time.

Critique away please!

Thanks, Mike

[Murtasma]

I tried to sharpen just the cat's face some but, could only go so far. Next time focus on the cats eyes that will be the bet. I also thing the white pillars probably from some tent kind of distract from the image see what you can do next time on the floor to angle yourself in a postion to avoid getting those in the frame. The green bushes and white fence compliment the cat nicely. Over all it's a nice image the foreground is a little to much out of focus perhaps try to focus on the ground just in front of the cat and shoot at a smaller F-Stop and crop out some of the foreground.

Cute kittie!

[thekevinmonster]

Since you're working with pretty shallow depth of field, focusing is really hard. I don't know if you were doing it manually or not, but you might want to switch your camera to center focus if you were using autofocus. At least that way, you're telling the camera exactly where you want it to try and focus, instead of relying on it to 'figure it out'.

Also, I think there's too much foreground.

My tired sunday morning comments...

[jiminyClickit]

mikeandsouth,

Cropped left, bottom and right, lightened around eye area, vignette moderately applied; that would get attention on cat. I like the possibilities in it. And the mouse-eye viewpoint.

[mikeandsouth]

he he, mouse eye view point, nice one!

Thanks for all the suggestions, murtasma, i tired sharpening more too, but it really began to show. thekevinmonster, i now realise i should have done that, i forgot all about the focus settings, new to the whole phography lark! What does changing the metering to centre do? or is that what you mean?
Also, jiminyclickit, what is vignette? I'll have a go at the crops, but i think scrap this one, and use the experience to get a better shot in the first place, thanks all!

[jiminyClickit]

mikeandsouth,

Vignette, looks like dark corners, usually done with a circular mask, light center, darker perimeter. Used here, it would lessen impact of any background issues.

[clockdoc]

Furry animals can be a challenge to get 'tack sharp' just where you want it when using auto focus. If your camera uses a 'contrast detection' method of focusing, the fur will 'confuse' the camera as to where to focus. Take lots of shots and vary your distance ever so slightly after locking in the focus and see if that produces better results. Nice shot of the cat as a quick grab.