We have a very friendly stray cat in the house named Ming Ming. While doing our once a year drinking binge slash photography session, Elber brought along his Nikon external flash which we used to do an impromptu portrait take for the cat.
Click on the image for the full view.
The result was absolutely amazing. One the hardest aspects of photographing animals is getting them to stay still – and stay uninterested with your photography equipment that they won’t care less about being shot. Good thing the cat was patient enough to sit through the whole thing.
We did something different here. Elber brought along his home made diffuser, very similar to the DIY FinnBounce and Smelfen for the 350D. But instead of bouncing light, it stopped it. But since the internal flash still fires, it triggers the Nikon slave (apologies, I forgot the model) allowing us to flash from anywhere. His home-made device is made of film strip bunched together and taped with masking tape which is inserted above the lens. I then uploaded the image to iPhoto and with a click of a button, converted to B&W.
So that is how we achieved this image. I was using my favorite prime lens for this. You can check out the full EXIF data here.
When shooting animals – especially cats, it is advisable to try to get the whiskers and eyes as your focal point.
12 replies on “Photo Project: Lighting”
Wow! Nice shot! I love the cat’s pose. Haha!
[…] The picture at the right should give you a clue already. On the other hand, Jayvee has a photo that illustrates the point even better – check it out here. […]
i love this photo. i am very envious that your animal subjects get to stand still. hehe. maybe i’ll try my camera with a stuffed animal first…
but then again… i don’t have bad ass cameras like you or elber. hehe.
dez, you should have come.
thats the one i texted you about earlier this week. jed was with us at my place too. basically an inuman + photo session!
dez: getting the shot wasn’t really that easy. the cat didn’t stand still for very long and we had to shoot dozens of frames to get this. unfortunately for me, jayvee got the best shot of the bunch. hmm… is that my competitiveness coming out?
jayvee: i want pictures! i need your motion-blurred shot of me holding my cam – i’m thinking of making it the header for my blog.
did you get the shots when you were at the house? ill zip them up.
stupid me… i didn’t get them while i was there.
it is really phenomenal what you have achieved here. i just love the lighting and the contrasting background and the cat.
graceful and elegant lines 🙂 i love the lighting.
That is one gorgeous cat. Haha, I can never get my cat to stay still long enough for me to take a decent picture of him. Thanks for the photography tips!
[…] Photo Project: Lighting November 18 2006 We did something different here. Elber brought along his home made diffuser, very similar to the DIY FinnBounce and Smelfen for the 350D. But instead of bouncing light, it stopped it. But since the internal flash still fires, it triggers the Nikon slave (apologies, I forgot the model) allowing us to flash from anywhere. His home-made device is made of film strip bunched together and taped with masking tape which is inserted above the lens. I then uploaded the image to iPhoto and with a click of a button, converted to B&W. [Read] […]
That is gorgeous! Both Cat and Photograph.