Shooting indoors can always be a bit tricky. For these shots, I think my fastest shutter speed was like 1/13th of a second. Normally I like to shoot at around 1/200th of a second with my 100mm lens because to ensure that you get clearly focused images, you want to double the focal length with your shutter speed. So if you are using a 50mm lens, you would want to shoot at at least 1/100th of a second.
Now without a tripod, this can be pretty hard to do, but you can always set the camera down on something, or bring the camera close to your body to help prevent any movement. It also helps if your subject is sitting still, which can be tough if you are taking pictures of your pets. To help them sit still, you want to try and limit any noises or anything in the room and don't draw attention to yourself or what you are doing.
With these images, I wanted to test out my steadiness with my shots and see if I could get a nice crisp shot without having to turn up the ISO too much. I had the ISO at 800 for the first shot of Harley laying on the stairs and with the slower shutter speed, I was able to bring in some light to the sensor to brighten up the image, because the hallway was pretty dark and you couldn't really see him at all. For the remainder of the shots, I had the ISO at 250 and adjusted the shutter speed to make it slow enough to bring in enough light. Overall, I really like how these pictures turned out. With shooting in low light and having a slower shutter speed, it can give a pretty cool glow to any of the lights. Shooting with your aperture wide open helps to give a cool glow as well.
I am going to try and talk more about the settings of my camera with my photography posts if people would be interested in knowing how I achieve certain looks or anything in my photos. So if that is something you would be interested in learning about, let me know in the comments. I am hoping to try and teach a little bit more about photography with my posts. Anyways, thanks for stopping by and checking out some of my photos of my pets. You are awesome!
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I would be highly interested in how you go about taking these shots. I have pretty good familiarity with operating all the things you mentioned, like shutter speed, iso, focal length, stops etc. but I have no real rules of thumb and basically just fiddle around until I think it's reasonable. So the little alpha you leaked with double the shutter speed on your focal length is highly appreciated.
Also, I really like your cat in the last few pictures, is it a Ragdoll?
Well that is good that there is an interest for it. When I was shooting on Safari in Africa, I was getting blurry photos, but I was also shooting with a 600mm lens, and I think I was trying to use a shutter speed of like 1/200th or so, and I should have been using 1/1200 to get clearer shots and I didn't learn that until a year or so later in school. Hopefully I can teach a few people how to take some better photos here on Hive.
As far as the cat, he is a Himalayan Siamese. His name is Dusty and my daughter raised him since the moment he was born.
I guess intuitively the longer the focal length, the more time it takes for light to reach the camera and so we need a higher "resolution" of "time" to capture what is further away. At least that's how I rationalise your rule of thumb.
I have another question actually..
As a photographer, do you find yourself being critical to photos, perhaps say from an amateur who mean well, but clearly has a lot of room for improvement.
I draw this comparison to music which is where I spent the most time in my first 20 years of life. It's difficult for me to listen to a piano player with skills less honed than myself not because I can't enjoy it as is, but because my brain gets "turned on" with all the different possibilities of how to play it better, express better etc. It becomes overbearing and I'm no longer able to just switch off being the "professional musician."
I ask this because, there are a lot of photos on liketu, and I would guess that 99% of them are not taken by someone who really knows what they're doing behind the camera. I wonder how a person like yourself goes about navigating their experiences and expectations here.
I do look at photos differently than most people. I try to look at them from a critical view and from a point of view of how they can improve. I can see a lot of potential in some of the more amateur photos and I try and offer encouragement or tips on how they can improve. I hope that I can encourage people to learn some tricks to improve the quality of the photos they share.
I need to see more pictures of your Labrador! So beautiful! 🤩 (Sorry I'm a dog person, nice Cat too) :)
I will have to post some more of him soon. He is just a big ball of love.
Of course. I'm interested in the camera settings and how you achieve such beautiful shots. I'm really looking forward to your next post.
Awesome
Is the cat in the second photo a Siamese? I love the quality of all the photos but he especially loves the one with the siamese cat, I'm too weak with animals, I adore them 😔❤️❤️❤️❤️
Yes she is. Her name is Sophie and she is the grandma of all the pets in the home. I have three Siamese cats total and two orange cats.
Awwww! Sophie is a beautiful grandma <3 😺😻
She really is one of the sweetest cats ever.
Yeah Harley, Yeah Dusty, Yeah all the others 😄 . Awesome shots. The question raised here about your expectation or thoughts on "amateur" photos is interesting. I'm an amateur myself and lately broke the lens of my phone. Still I try to get the best out of my pictures, with complete cluelessness lol.
I want to try and give some more tips and stuff in my posts to try and help people improve their skills. The only problem is a lot of people don't want to put the work into improving. Photography is more than just stopping a moment in time, it is about capturing that moment in time from an interesting angle. Too many people take photos from the angle they are normally seeing, but if they change that angle to something different, like getting down at your pets height or below, it can change the photo and make them a lot more interesting.
I agree with different angles and perspectives. Just like in life. When it comes to the theory like shutter speed and stuff like that I get it to a point. But then I just own a smartphone. I just dug out my GoPro 7 Black. Let's see what I can make out of it lol.
I am not sure how much control over the speeds and aperture you will get with your GoPro, but they do take some pretty cool pictures and you can make some awesome videos with them.
That's why I bought it in the first place and never touched it since lol. I will get myself a chest mount so maybe I can video some of the dog walks. Or take some cool shots. Gotta have the hands free most of the time so that seems to be an option. My smartphone takes decent pics but the glass on the lens broke. Now I have to crop each image to get the noise out, and fumbling around in the woods with a smartphone is sub-optimal period lol. Oh well, you'll stumble upon the pics anytime soon lol.
I am dog person. I like xo much this photo.
Thanks. We love cats and dogs in our home.
Nice shots. I know how difficult can it be to catch these pals. They just have an urge to move and with a slow shutter that is super bad. Can I ask you what camera do you use for this? And aperture? I have 1.8 the fastest, but my camera is not full frame so I get much less light into the sensor.
I use a Canon 5D Mark IV and for these photos, I used my 100mm f/2.8. I shot these wide open to bring as much light in as possible. The 1.8 is a decent lens that brings in a good amount of light, but it can be very slow with focusing.
Beautiful photos of our furry friends, they look adorable!
Thank you