High Key cats

JC

I love this challenge. I just got two cats, spent the last couple of months getting them healthy. I don't think I could have chosen harder cats to photograph though, if I were to have chosen cats based on their ease of photography. This challenge is a great opportunity to figure out how to shoot them. I was hoping for natural light for this, but there's been a strong marine layer every day I've been home with the opportunity to shoot them. These shots are very rough, in what available light there was inside.

My goal- to get the shots high key in camera, not getting a high key image simply by saturating the high end in levels to move the image into high key.

My challenges- to get the white balance correct- I obviously failed at this so-I guess the natural light bounces off too much wood and colored tile in our house. I didn't bring out the gray card for this, I was concentrating more on stalking the cats towards the white background I had out, and to get the exposure correct, with a smaller aperture and lower ISO. Oh, and to get them to let me take a washcloth to their faces

I have a couple of highly flawed test images, not nearly ready for prime time yet, but exploring the territory, and C&C would be great.

1) the boy. I'm leaning towards close crops like this- or do you want to see more of the subject? (There's a self portrait or two in there)


2) the girl- is her 'cap' going to dominate the image too much if I try to use her for a subject, pulling the image too far away from high key? I tried to focus on her eyes, but she was dancing with the camera and in the low light I didn't have much wiggle room.

DsrtVW

I really like the first one with the close crop. that was the first idea I had but no one I know has a white cat. Mine kitty is a tiger tabby would nt work. Might try adding some flash to bring the highlights up even more. Even on camera flash with diffeuser

kdotaylor

Great idea--I love the close crop of the boy...would love to just see the eyes and a hint of the nose.

eL eSs Vee

High-key does not mean everything is pure white. Not even close. It's about light colors. The thing is, you still want detail, even in high key. Without it, you have a frame of white; a close-up of Jimmy Carter's tooth. Light your light-colored subject well and have a light background. (You'll note that I didn't say a "white background.")

The "cap" on your girl adds to the image. Above, I said it was about light colors, but a bold accent is nothing to sneeze at (even if you are allergic to cats). So, to me, the "cap" is a great accent, but the background is a distraction. As an example, I'll be working with a model in July and we'll be shooting both high-key and low. Her hair is very red and will really stand out in a high-key image. She's very fair skinned and will be wearing all white. Much like Marilyn in this image:



When I showed this to Michelle and asked her if she'd like to do something like it, she nearly jumped out of her chair in excitement. You'll note that the image isn't pure white-on-white. Much like your cats, there is some color and there really isn't much pure white. Look at the background, her hair, even her coat and gloves show detail. In fact, the only reason some detail seems to have been lost is because this is a photo of a photo.

So one does not need a bleach blonde model with milk-white skin and a pure white fur coat and gloves to make a good high-key image. - or even a pure white cat, for that matter. They just need to do it right. . . . er, light. But not too light. Go light, but don't go beyond the detail.

Both of your images here are very good, but I'd like to see more detail in the boy's face. Cats have fur on their faces (well, it's obvious that you know that) and texture makes for a very interesting image. Without it, you're back to Jimmy Carter's tooth. So tone it down just a touch - darken it by about ten percent - and it'll be an amazing image.

lkbart

Yeah, white kitties are hard to shoot! I like the framing with the whiskers in #1; could crop a touch off the top & that would remove some of the orange & show off the unusual eyes more. Could also clone out the ditties around the nose & eyes. Pretty eyes on both kitties!

cromwell

Maybe take the first one and desaturate it.

JC

white fur is hard!
white fur is hard! which makes this challenge so good.

I'm getting the white balance better, and got some stronger artificial light- which gave me more shadow under the chin that I wanted, but I still need to try during the day when I can get some extra sunlight through the windows. These are indoor kitties, they'd ravage the neighborhood I'm pretty sure if I let them outside, and no way I'd get them to sit still outside. Depth of field is pretty small, aperture was pretty open even with the floodlights.

What I can't do is get them to sit farther from the backdrop to get more light on the backdrop and separate the cats from the backdrop more- And by backdrop, I mean a white blanket draped over the back of the couch

I think I overdid the contrast here trying to distinguish the cats from the backdrop. eL eSs Vee's post has me thinking maybe I should try a very pale but colored backdrop maybe palest amber or palest blue like their eyes? Or I'll need to go with the close crop like #1 in my original post

I tried some on-camera flash, got horrible red eye, even diffused. Demon cat. If I can rig up a reflector I'll try a bounced flash.

Posing preferences? Looking into the camera or away?
1) looking away

2) looking towards

rteest42

My goodness he is beautiful!!! The cocked angle and off centeredness adds to the impact

JC

Hi key cat says talk to the tongue- no more modeling.