Hello, I'm Mare. I love photographing pets so I joined this group and I am submitting this photo for your critique. I created a series of photos taking pictures of my cat Lucy with different lighting. This one was with flash in manual mode (1/32power). The settings were 48mm focal length, f/10, shutter speed 1/125(to stop the motion of a moving cat) and because the shutter speed was so fast I had to bump up ISO to 1600. I look forward to knowing your opinions on this image. Thanks so much:)
Lucy looks like a fantastic cat, and your lighting looks like its brought the patterns in her fur. To improve the shot I would have tried moving more to the left so that you can see the wall in the background and its just the gray blanket. The arm of the chair and the wall are a bit of a distraction from the cat. Whenever I am taking pictures of my cats I always try and get down low to their eye level I think it makes for a better picture. Thanks for posting, keep up the good work.
Like Ciaran I like to get down to their eye level and I try to get them to look directly at me (I know easier said than done). I also shoot only ambient and use a large aperture (1.8 - 2.8) to create a shallow depth of field. This puts my cat in focus, but blurs the background/foreground. After all the image is about the cat not the surroundings. And I almost always like the images I take when I am focused in tight on the animal - usually the face only. Great looking cat. Keep shooting and experimenting.