Oh Snap! Family Pets

I'm working on my speedlight skills, and wanted a challenge: shooting black subjects.  Black can be very challenging to shoot properly. You have to over-expose areas so you can show form and texture while maintaining the sense that the subject is black and not gray.  But shooting black subjects in itself brings a challenge - how do you light them without blowing out the lighter surrounding?  And if that isn't enough, let's try shooting something that can't be counted on to sit still....

My friend Carol has 2 cats, Pancho and Elvis.  Pancho is pure black, and Elvis is black with white face, chest paws, etc. - an interesting challenge, and lighting is only one of them.  These are the first cats I've shot that were free to wander.  Well, until Carol caught them and brought them back. 

For the shoot I brought along some small softboxes and a couple 43" umbrellas.  Cats don't much like umbrellas, and they weren't too thrilled with the softboxes either.  These strange objects in the house that kept popping light in their face wasn't thrilling the cats too much, but they handled it better than I'd anticipated.  Mostly they ignored me by being cats.  Turning away and acting like we (me and my stuff) weren't there.  As such they didn't relax and play as much as we'd hope, but I still got a few good shots that I liked.


Here's a few for your viewing pleasure:

That's MY floor, buddy!

Just another day by the lake

The cats have their very own window, with a cushioned perch set up so they can relax and watch the world go by.

HEY!  Donchu see the "Do Not Disturb" sign?!

In this shot I deliberately underexposed the cats till they were almost a silhouette.  I set one speedlight with a Lumiquest SBIII softbox at camera left to bring out just a touch of their fur.  It was a happy accident that Pancho turned to look at Carol.  I was just after some profile shots, but when he turned, I had to take the shot.  The speedlight put just enough light on his face and whiskers to bring out the details without making it obvious that a light was there.  The only clue - the catchlight in his eyes.

You can see the full set on my flickr site...

Hope you enjoy....