Yawning Cat

[Rebel]

Not sure if I am happy with the lighting in this shot, its a bit too dark.


British Cats by mathrobs, on Flickr

[Geoff F]

Yes, Matt, I suspect your only real hope would have been to use a little fill flash on the foreground. But a tricky scene whatever you did, apart from taking a bit of time setting up some complex studio lighting; by which time the cat would have become bored and wandered off.

The background is very bright against the darker foreground. But you don't want to totally over expose the background.

Possibly a little selective adjustment of brightness levels could reverse this situation and do something to save the shot.

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Matt,

Welcome to the CiC forums from me, great to have you join us.

I had a look at the meta page for this on Flickr ...

Nikon D3100 at 24mm with kit lens, no flash, 1/60s, f/6.3 and iso800 on Auto Exposure

You have LightRoom 4.4 (Win) to edit with, it should be possible to apply a couple of gradient filters with that to improve the bright background and dim cat here (as Geoff suggests). I can't help with the "how", as I don't have LR, but if you need help, just ask, someone will be sure to assist.

For "next time"; I think you'll need to read some of our tutorials in order to learn enough to get away from using Auto exposure for tricky lighting shots like this. That said, with pets, on camera fill flash risks "pet eye", so you'd need to be careful.

I had a quick look through your other pics, you clearly have an eye for a composition, but shooting on Auto seems to be a common theme that is harming a few of them.

Cheers,