Eyes closed, where to focus?

Bambi'sThumper

Bambi'sThumper

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185
Name
Jenny
Edit My Images
Yes
I have a couple of cats and love getting shots of them while they are all cute and snoozy, only problem with this is, when they are snoozy and they close their eyes to sleep, where do I focus then?
Do I still focus on the eyes but the slits?
Or do I change to the nose?

I just wanted to know what the general thought was on this, I find if I focus on the eye slits it doesnt work well for the photo.

Thanks
Jenny
 
Jenny i am no great photographer! but as i used to breed Persian Cats and took may pics of them what I used to do was wait until after a meal then brush them up make sure they were very clean and then enjoy some playtime with them.

When I saw them getting a little tired I would then lie on the floor with a squeaky toy or rolled up noisy paper e.g. crisp bag! compose my shot then make a noise with the toy/paper and shoot as they looked at me.I knew which way I wanted them to be if that makes sense I hated pricked ears with an alarming look so knew which way to place my hand with the toy to get the look i wanted.
Hope this helps
Cathy


Rouge2 by cooriedoon, on Flickr



Gabby1 by cooriedoon, on Flickr
 
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Some very nice shots there Cathy. Bet they leave some fir about!

Jenny, if you want shots with eyes closed, you'll need to look for some contrast in the area you want in focus. If your cats are black and it's dark, this might prove tricky! As you say the nose is an option, you could also try the whiskers as they'll give the auto focus something to work on. What sort of aperture are you using? Something not too extreme will help matters in terms of getting more in focus.
 
Cathy, they are beautiful! Thank you for that I will give that a go.

Graham, the one is tortoise shell and she is more dark than blonde/ginger, so I tend to stick to good lighting when it come to her, the other one is bright ginger and has beautiful facial markings and is a lot easier to shoot in darker lighting so I tend to bug the heck outta him all the time with the camera.
Im just uploading a shot, this is the one that has made me think about this. It was a quick shot and I cant remember the aperture but I think it was quite small(? can never remember which way round it goes for dept of field) as theres a lot of blurring. It has made me wonder as I really like the shot so if I try something like this again I want to make sure its in good focus. As you can see from the photo, I've tried focusing on eye slits. Its no the best photo as I'm aware the ear tip is chopped off but it was a quick shot to try something out with the camera.
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Bambi'sThumper said:
Cathy, they are beautiful! Thank you for that I will give that a go.

Graham, the one is tortoise shell and she is more dark than blonde/ginger, so I tend to stick to good lighting when it come to her, the other one is bright ginger and has beautiful facial markings and is a lot easier to shoot in darker lighting so I tend to bug the heck outta him all the time with the camera.
Im just uploading a shot, this is the one that has made me think about this. It was a quick shot and I cant remember the aperture but I think it was quite small(? can never remember which way round it goes for dept of field) as theres a lot of blurring. It has made me wonder as I really like the shot so if I try something like this again I want to make sure its in good focus. As you can see from the photo, I've tried focusing on eye slits. Its no the best photo as I'm aware the ear tip is chopped off but it was a quick shot to try something out with the camera.
IMG_6123edit_zps57bc4741.jpg
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I would use the center focusing spot if you're not already doing that and focus on the slit about halfway down.

Use a smaller aperture than you have (That means a LARGER f number - and yes it's confusing until you get used to it!) for greater DOF and step up the ISO if necessary.

.
 
Beautiful shot of a purrfect kitty!

Thank you Jenny these two are now with friends .

I have a black and white and a red and white that stayed here with me.
More than enough along with my two Bernese Dogs!
 
Peter, I did have it on centre focus & I will try that next time.
Yes it is confusing as I am now trying to fully understand what everything means, I'm with understanding the F numbers and how they work and how they are backwards from what they do but its putting that into context with depth of field - then I get confused! When "greater depth of field" is said, that means that more of the image is in focus, is that right? Its wording that gets me sometimes.

Cathy, Thank you.
I bet that is a handful! Our 2 is a handful enough for us, although I would love more, I'd rehome every one if I could! Our 2 is brother and sister, although you wouldnt believe it some times - Teegan is tiny, stalky and a tough cookie & likes to take on the neighbours St. Bernard! Funny sight that. Ollie, who is in the pic above, is bigger than your average small dog, around 2 & a half foot or more stretched out, really tall and a huge wuss! Totally different characters but equally hilarious!
 
Bambi'sThumper said:
Peter, I did have it on centre focus & I will try that next time.
Yes it is confusing as I am now trying to fully understand what everything means, I'm with understanding the F numbers and how they work and how they are backwards from what they do but its putting that into context with depth of field - then I get confused! When "greater depth of field" is said, that means that more of the image is in focus, is that right? Its wording that gets me sometimes.
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Yes - "greater depth of field" does that more of the image is in focus, and to achieve this you have to use a SMALLER aperture, which means using a LARGER f no.

In fact the term "Aperture" really refers to the diameter of the iris inside the lens which can be varied either manually or automatically by the camera electronics.

The "f no" or "stop" is the focal length of the lens divided by the aperture and determines the amount of light a lens will pass

In this way all lenses at any f no will usually all pass the same amount of light (within manufacturing tolerances) so that f11 on one camera will give the same exposure as f11 on another camera - everything else being equal.

Hope that helps you understand it a little better.

.
 
Just think of the bigger the f number the bigger the amount thats in focus, smaller the f number then the smaller the amount thats in focus.
I know - its crap english but it worked helping me to remember :)
 
Bambi'sThumper said:
Peter, I did have it on centre focus & I will try that next time.
Yes it is confusing as I am now trying to fully understand what everything means, I'm with understanding the F numbers and how they work and how they are backwards from what they do but its putting that into context with depth of field - then I get confused! When "greater depth of field" is said, that means that more of the image is in focus, is that right? Its wording that gets me sometimes.

Cathy, Thank you.
I bet that is a handful! Our 2 is a handful enough for us, although I would love more, I'd rehome every one if I could! Our 2 is brother and sister, although you wouldnt believe it some times - Teegan is tiny, stalky and a tough cookie & likes to take on the neighbours St. Bernard! Funny sight that. Ollie, who is in the pic above, is bigger than your average small dog, around 2 & a half foot or more stretched out, really tall and a huge wuss! Totally different characters but equally hilarious!
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The dof thing can be confusing at first but it is so very important. This is what I did to get a grip on dof. I hooked my camera to my laptop on a tripod, set up some objects on a table at different depths focused on the center object in the scene and took shots one at a time at different F-stops. Each shot I would examine on the big laptop screen and I could see exactly what was going on. I just shot at 2.8 then 3.2 and so on. It's amazing how the distance from your lens to the subject can effect the dof so much. Try doing this from different distances and you will see. The other thing I would like to mention is to not get caught up in understanding the terms. That is not important now,. Understanding how dof effects your shots is what is important. The terms will come to you soon after. I hope that helps, give it a try if you like, it worked well for me.
 
Great, thanks for the tip Shayne, although I'm not sure how to hook my camera to the laptop as I dont have the Canon software disk - if thats needed. I think I have the cable just not the disk
 
Bambi'sThumper said:
Great, thanks for the tip Shayne, although I'm not sure how to hook my camera to the laptop as I dont have the Canon software disk - if thats needed. I think I have the cable just not the disk
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I think it is possible with most software, you would just need to check the software you are using.
 
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