pet and owner photoshoots??

hayley.price

hayley.price

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hayley
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i have been asked to do a photoshoot for my friends its off her neice and her pet cat any tips on what i should do, look for and want to get pictures off?? indoors or out or both??? what lens to use, have just borght myself a 50mm prime 1.8f would this be okay???

anything you could mention to help
 
Make sure it's not an indoor cat before you take it outside!

Have some bits of chicken or ham. Cats will do almost anything for those.
 
Get down to their level if she's sitting down holding the cat. I'd go for head shots, for example, get her to kiss the cat or nose to nose kinda thing.
Good luck Hayley :thumbs:
 
50mm prime is perfect for this
don't go f1.8 all the time though otherwise you might not get both pet and owner in focus at the same time.
set the shutter speed to 1/100 or something and go from there
 
DizMatt said:
50mm prime is perfect for this
don't go f1.8 all the time though otherwise you might not get both pet and owner in focus at the same time.
set the shutter speed to 1/100 or something and go from there
Click to expand...

If I may disagree and promote my reasons for this...

When shooting any animals I've always found long zooms to yield much better results. Animals tend to come close to you when they see you approach or close to them. With a longer lens you can catch their natural behaviour a bit more plus, they are fast moving (normally) and perhaps move faster than you can do to recompose.

Sometimes I make the mistake of sticking my 50mm on which always ends up being swapped for the long zoom. If had a 120-400mm still it would be perfect in terms of length.
 
Another vote for a long zoom. I spend half my life snapping my wife's kittens and a longer lens is just the ticket. I get the best shots with a longish prime (85mm on my 40d) but it is harder work than with a long zoom.
 
I've not had to do anything like this before but it would be my thoughts depending on the kind of shots you are after, to observe from a distance (with a long zoom lens as suggested) and shoot the interaction between owner and cat e.g. playing with a bit of string, having some fuss etc to get more natural results. Unless they are after specific 'portrait' shots. Just my suggestion.
 
I was going to take me 18-55mm my 50mm for dark light situations, but if you think zoom the only zoom I have is my 70-300 tamron would this be okay??
 
Phil Young said:
If I may disagree and promote my reasons for this...

When shooting any animals I've always found long zooms to yield much better results. Animals tend to come close to you when they see you approach or close to them. With a longer lens you can catch their natural behaviour a bit more plus, they are fast moving (normally) and perhaps move faster than you can do to recompose.

Sometimes I make the mistake of sticking my 50mm on which always ends up being swapped for the long zoom. If had a 120-400mm still it would be perfect in terms of length.
Click to expand...

Agree with this, whenever i've photographed my cat if he's alert (usually looking for food) if I come too close to him with my camera he comes straight to me. But if you have a long enough zoom you shouldn't have this problem and get a more natural 'no one is looking at me' cat behaviour.

However, I've photographed my cat plenty of times using 50mm 1.8 and i've got some really nice portraits of him (helps if he's a bit sleepy too). Hopefully the kitty will be too distracted by the owner posing with him/her too even notice your camera.

P.S. cats will do anything for treats :P
 
Another vote for a zoom, I get better results with my 55-250 when trying to capture my dog.
 
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