Photographying cats indoors

[Robin1132]

I am trying to photograph my cats inside with a Nikon D40. I am having alot of trouble, either the cats move and my shots are blurry or they blink when the flash goes off even though the flash is facing the ceiling. I need the flash as there is not much in the way of good lighting in this room.

[Major_Small]

Sunlight helps a lot. Cats love sunning themselves, so they're naturally drawn to bright spots. If you don't have any windows or doors or anything that let beams of light hit the floor, try giving the cat something to sit on near a window that they can look out of.

If your only option left is to add light, try using hotlights. I've never had a problem with a cat blinking at a flash, considering the light travels at the speed of light, and a cat can't blink nearly that fast. The cat blinks, but by the time he does so, the light has hit his eye and come back already. If you're using RER, that may get the cat to close it's eyes early. Try turning it off.

If you get frustrated by trying to shoot your cat, take a look at this thread and take solace in the fact that you're not alone

[inkista]

Do you have a 50mm f/1.8 lens? That would help, too.

[oldwolf]

increase your ISO to about 400. drop your f-stop down as low as possible. if you have a 50mm f/1.8 then use that. stick to the sunny spots or spots that your cat likes to hang out. putting some soft and fuzzy there will help keep the cat there a bit longer.

good luck

[jdepould]

If I'm shooting ambient light with my 50 I'll usually try to shoot somewhere in the neighborhood of 1/60s @ f/2.8. I can usually get away with ISO800 or lower. In this case, it would probably benefit you to bump the shutter speed and ISO, but using f/1.8 is going to give you extremely shallow DoF.

[mattopia]

You might need to "wait" for a candid. I got a fairly good one of my cat by the luck of the draw. I had all of the blinds open in the house during a weekend afternoon, so lighting was decent. I also had the camera set to a relatively high ISO of 1000, which left a little grain but not too terrible.

I found that sitting the camera on the floor helped. My cat showed some interest, and I snapped as he was looking at the camera in a "what's this?" sort of way.

The pic is here if you're interested in taking a look.

[Robin1132]

Wonderful kitty shot, that's the kind of shot I want without the eyes closed!

[corry]

here is my fave taken of one of our cats last year sitting on the window ledge..do you have a spot near a window they like to sleep or look outside?..this is without flash and with my old camera i think. i will say that i've had recent luck with cat pics since getting the 50mm 1.8 lens too though.....even in our dim basement.

[DoctorN]

The above tips on exposure are a good start - flash is not too flattering for many animals as they often have runny eyes or noses that reflect badly.

I've found if I put the cat on a table and make growling or hissing noises from behind the camera I can hold their attention for a while and they cannot get too close to you which is often the case if you sit on the floor.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/thedoctorn/2685190861/

If you hiss too more agressively you can get a startled shot like this!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/thedoct...n/photostream/

D