Photographing Your Cat

Also see: Composing a Photo, Elements of Composition, Using Colour in Photography, Photographing Cats

• When taking photos of cats good light. Avoid using the flash if possible, but if you have to use a flash, try & take the photo at a slight angle, to avoid the flash going off directly in the eye. It is best to use one that is an off-camera flash, which you can hold to the side of the camera, preventing it going off directly into your cat's eyes. I also like to take photos in bright light because the irises are constricted & therefore show off more of the cat's eye colour. One thing I love is catchlights in the eyes. They really do give life to the cat. You can see catchlights in two photos below.

• If you are taking photos of your cat outside,  best time is in the first or the last hour of sunlight, otherwise the light can be too harsh.

• Hold the camera at the cat's eye level. Make sure you don't cut off ears, feet or tails.

• If you want professional looking photos, use a backdrop. I buy cheap material & put it over the sofa. Use colours that contrast well with the cat's coat & bring out the cat's eye colour. I prefer to have a plain background but sometimes you can use the background to your advantage, as in the photos of the cat in the flowers below. Make sure your background is uncluttered, there really is nothing worse than taking a gorgeous photo of your cat only to find it has a tree branch coming out of the back of it's head.

• Use toys & food treats to get the cat's attention. I prefer toys as when I have used food treats the cat's keep trying to come to me & won't sit still. With a toy, I tend to dangle it just out of view of the camera. I like to take photos of my cat's looking directly at the camera, but I also like photos where the cat's head is slightly at an angle.

• Do what professional photographers do, take lots & lots of photos. I only get one or two really nice shots out of every 100. 

• Try to capture your cat's personality & mood in the shot.

• Get in close, fill as much of the frame as possible with the cat. 

• Remember that a cat is a beautiful & graceful animal, you want to capture shots of your cat being a cat & not in any way undignified, such as dressing it up, or making it pose in an un-cat like way.

• Always have your camera close by & charged up! Try to experiment with your camera's settings & switch from auto to a manual setting where you have more control over aperture & speed. I have found by doing this I am now able to take photos inside our quite dark house, without the use of a flash. For those of you who have only ever used auto mode, try switching to P (for programme) if your camera has this option. The camera is still doing most of the work but you are given a little more control.

• Be patient. Your cat may just not be in the mood to have his/her photo taken. If this is the case, no matter how hard you try, you will not get good photos. Wait until your cat is in a more receptive mood. Photographing your cat has to be fun for both the cat & you. This is another reason I like to use toys when I am photographing the cats. It makes the session enjoyable for them & relatively easy for me to get nice shots of them. 

• Another tip is to photograph your cat when she has just woken up from a nap & isn't overly active. 

• Be aware of your cat's good & bad angles. My Siamese doesn't look particularly pretty when he's sitting, he has a very slouched posture, so I try to take photos of just his face & neck, he also looks very nice when he's lying down. My Burmese is a little on the tubby side, so I try to avoid photographing him when he's sitting down, as it makes him look even fatter. 
   

• Practice, practice & practice. Look at cat photos you like & study them carefully. Try to replicate what the photographer has done.

With exception to the final photo on this page, all shots were taken with a Canon EOS 400D DSLR camera. The final photo was taken with a Canon Powershot G5.

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