How could I shoot the cat sharper?

[bnnrcn]

This photo was taken late in the afternoon,so light wasn't enough.I used the widest aperture which was 2.8 and I could get 1/100 sec. with ISO 400..I didn't want to use any higher ISO values because I was told high ISO values spoilt the photo.So,because the cat was moving I coldn't take a really sharp picture of it.In such cases what is the best solution?Do you suggest higher ISO or do you suggest that I should cure this kind of shots with PS (I don't know if this is possible).Not taking the photo at all is not a solution:-) What is your opinion?

[Manfred M]

Binnur – if there is any way that you could find a way of posting the EXIF metadata with your images, it would make it a lot easier to help you. Without the data, it will take a lot more guessing as to what has happened.

Both the ISO, aperture and shutter speed do not look unreasonable for taking this type of image, but I’m saying that without knowing the focal length that you are shooting at. I do a lot of shooting wide open at f/2.8 (for shallow depth of field), so that is not necessarily an issue either. Your background is nicely out of focus (although the horizon line is not straight, and should be something you should be paying attention to).

I suspect that you may be having a focusing issue. If you are using an averaging focusing mode, your camera was probably keying on some of the tree branches, rather than the cat, and that would certainly contribute to a soft image. I tend to shoot people and animals using a centre focusing mode, and I will focus on the eye and then recompose to take the picture. That does take some practice and if the animal is moving too much, you might have more luck with a continuous focusing mode, where once the camera locks focus, it will track the focus point as it moves.

I would also be tempted to crank up the ISO to at least 800 and shoot with a smaller aperture setting to increase the depth of field at bit. Your lens will be sharper shooting in the f/5.6 – f/8 range, so trading off ISO and shutter speed needs to be part of your decision making process. Yes, as your turn up the ISO, you can get more noise, but this will probably be less of a problem than an image that is not sharp enough.

You also need to work on your composition, as this image could be a lot stronger.

[bnnrcn]

focal length is 41mm..it is not averaging focusing mode but It shoul have been better if I had used continuous focusing mode .

How could I have got a stronger composition with this scene?

Binnur – if there is any way that you could find a way of posting the EXIF metadata with your images, it would make it a lot easier to help you. Without the data, it will take a lot more guessing as to what has happened.

Both the ISO, aperture and shutter speed do not look unreasonable for taking this type of image, but I’m saying that without knowing the focal length that you are shooting at. I do a lot of shooting wide open at f/2.8 (for shallow depth of field), so that is not necessarily an issue either. Your background is nicely out of focus (although the horizon line is not straight, and should be something you should be paying attention to).

I suspect that you may be having a focusing issue. If you are using an averaging focusing mode, your camera was probably keying on some of the tree branches, rather than the cat, and that would certainly contribute to a soft image. I tend to shoot people and animals using a centre focusing mode, and I will focus on the eye and then recompose to take the picture. That does take some practice and if the animal is moving too much, you might have more luck with a continuous focusing mode, where once the camera locks focus, it will track the focus point as it moves.

I would also be tempted to crank up the ISO to at least 800 and shoot with a smaller aperture setting to increase the depth of field at bit. Your lens will be sharper shooting in the f/5.6 – f/8 range, so trading off ISO and shutter speed needs to be part of your decision making process. Yes, as your turn up the ISO, you can get more noise, but this will probably be less of a problem than an image that is not sharp enough.

You also need to work on your composition, as this image could be a lot stronger.

[benm]

Here is a suggested composition:

[bnnrcn]

Thank you Ben,just a little cropping changed everthing:-)

Here is a suggested composition:

[FrankMi]

The crop is a really great benefit. Looks good Binnur!

The only suggestion I can offer is that even a small amount of RED can be a real attention grabber and can potentially take the viewer's focus off the subject. I would tone down or eliminate the red dot that grabs your eye. Hope this helps!

Speaking of eyes, it looks like this cat has a beautiful case of heterochromia.

[Wavelength]

Great shot

[bnnrcn]

Thank you Frank,I don't know how to use photoshop because first I'm trying to learn shooting properly.Even so,your comment is important to me,if I look from your point of view,may be yellow dot at the corner of left ear should be toned down or eliminated too (of course if possible).By the way what is heterochromia,is it a kind of desease...?

The crop is a really great benefit. Looks good Binnur!

The only suggestion I can offer is that even a small amount of RED can be a real attention grabber and can potentially take the viewer's focus off the subject. I would tone down or eliminate the red dot that grabs your eye. Hope this helps!

Speaking of eyes, it looks like this cat has a beautiful case of heterochromia.

[bnnrcn]

Thanks:-)

Great shot

[FrankMi]

By the way what is heterochromia,is it a kind of desease...?

No, no. Heterochromia is a hereditary condition that results in multi-colored eyes. The odd-eyed coloring is caused when either the epistatic (dominant) white gene (which masks any other color genes and turns a cat completely white) or the white spotting gene (which is the gene responsible for bicolor and tuxedo cats) prevents melanin (pigment) granules from reaching one eye during development, resulting in a cat with one blue eye and one green, yellow, or brown eye. The condition only rarely occurs in cats that lack both the dominant white and the white spotting gene.

This condition can occur in other animals and even in humans.

The easiest way to deal with the red dot without doing any post processing would be to crop a sliver off the left side and don't worry about the yellow dot. These are things that you want to consider while setting up the shot and at some point in the future the post processing can come into play. The biggest advantage in looking critically at an image like this is that it sharpens your 'eye' for looking for these details before you snap the shutter.

[bnnrcn]

Sorry Manfred ,it is 46 mm,I have just noticed that I have written 41 instead of 46...

focal length is 41mm..it is not averaging focusing mode but It shoul have been better if I had used continuous focusing mode .

How could I have got a stronger composition with this scene?

[bnnrcn]

Thank you very much Frank:-)Are you a doctor?Not everbody is so knowledgeable about such a thing.

No, no. Heterochromia is a hereditary condition that results in multi-colored eyes. The odd-eyed coloring is caused when either the epistatic (dominant) white gene (which masks any other color genes and turns a cat completely white) or the white spotting gene (which is the gene responsible for bicolor and tuxedo cats) prevents melanin (pigment) granules from reaching one eye during development, resulting in a cat with one blue eye and one green, yellow, or brown eye. The condition only rarely occurs in cats that lack both the dominant white and the white spotting gene.

This condition can occur in other animals and even in humans.

[bnnrcn]

Sorry Manfred ,it is 46 mm,I made a mistake and wrote 41 instead of 46.

Binnur – if there is any way that you could find a way of posting the EXIF metadata with your images, it would make it a lot easier to help you. Without the data, it will take a lot more guessing as to what has happened.

Both the ISO, aperture and shutter speed do not look unreasonable for taking this type of image, but I’m saying that without knowing the focal length that you are shooting at. I do a lot of shooting wide open at f/2.8 (for shallow depth of field), so that is not necessarily an issue either. Your background is nicely out of focus (although the horizon line is not straight, and should be something you should be paying attention to).

I suspect that you may be having a focusing issue. If you are using an averaging focusing mode, your camera was probably keying on some of the tree branches, rather than the cat, and that would certainly contribute to a soft image. I tend to shoot people and animals using a centre focusing mode, and I will focus on the eye and then recompose to take the picture. That does take some practice and if the animal is moving too much, you might have more luck with a continuous focusing mode, where once the camera locks focus, it will track the focus point as it moves.

I would also be tempted to crank up the ISO to at least 800 and shoot with a smaller aperture setting to increase the depth of field at bit. Your lens will be sharper shooting in the f/5.6 – f/8 range, so trading off ISO and shutter speed needs to be part of your decision making process. Yes, as your turn up the ISO, you can get more noise, but this will probably be less of a problem than an image that is not sharp enough.

You also need to work on your composition, as this image could be a lot stronger.

[FrankMi]

Thank you very much Frank:-)Are you a doctor?Not everbody is so knowledgeable about such a thing.

You are welcome Binnur. No, I'm not that smart! I try to continually ask myself 'what if' questions then search for the answers. When I saw the cat's eyes I figured I'd look it up on the web and learn something new. For me, it's a good day when I can learn something significant and new. Thank you for posting the image!

[Manfred M]

Sorry Manfred ,it is 46 mm,I have just noticed that I have written 41 instead of 46...

At 46mm, 1/100th second should be quite fast enough for camera movement to not be a factor affecting sharpness (with or without IS).

The idea of composition is to make the image more interesting to the viewer. I would suggest you read some books on composition where things like "rule of thirds", impact of bright area, repeating patterns, simplification, etc are covered. While we can often dig something interesting out of many images, it means throwing away significant parts of it (i.e. reduces the overall quality).

Over and above basic composition, one of the most important "tricks" in photography is to ensure that we have shot to exclude elements that distract from the image. Usually this can (and should) be done when the photographer is taking the picture and one trick I learned many years ago was to run my eye around the edge of the image before pressing the shutter release to ensure that the edges of the photo are "clean". Sometimes we cannot avoid more significant retouching; for instance, signs or electrical lines running in front of a building. In those cases post-processing may be the only option.

I'm always happiest when my image is so clean that I really don't have to do much more than the adjustments in my RAW converter plus in-process and output sharpening.

[bnnrcn]

Thank you Manfred,I'm reading a book about composition by Michael Freeman already, but it will take time to get experienced.

At 46mm, 1/100th second should be quite fast enough for camera movement to not be a factor affecting sharpness (with or without IS).

The idea of composition is to make the image more interesting to the viewer. I would suggest you read some books on composition where things like "rule of thirds", impact of bright area, repeating patterns, simplification, etc are covered. While we can often dig something interesting out of many images, it means throwing away significant parts of it (i.e. reduces the overall quality).

Over and above basic composition, one of the most important "tricks" in photography is to ensure that we have shot to exclude elements that distract from the image. Usually this can (and should) be done when the photographer is taking the picture and one trick I learned many years ago was to run my eye around the edge of the image before pressing the shutter release to ensure that the edges of the photo are "clean". Sometimes we cannot avoid more significant retouching; for instance, signs or electrical lines running in front of a building. In those cases post-processing may be the only option.

I'm always happiest when my image is so clean that I really don't have to do much more than the adjustments in my RAW converter plus in-process and output sharpening.

[jcuknz]

I think your attitude in endeavouring to learn camerawork before you start with editing is wrong as camera and editor are companion tools and a few seconds in editing sharpened up your cat. But that is not to say that you shouldn't do the best you can with the camera and ideally as Manfred put it the least he does the more he likes it .... BUT you need to know what is possible in editing as a back-up.
While cats can be un-cooperative in not staying put for us my preference is to use single spot focusing and once I have the focus I want reframing for the composition I want. I used to use the half-trigger facility of the camera with a single centre focus point but there are other ways if you have time. I dislike the idea of the camera picking focus for me however good it maybe at doing that. though there are situations where that is the only way to work such as sports action etc.
Anyway your photo sharpened up a bit .... the cropped version ....

I put a loose 'lasso' selection around the cat and sharpened that part of the picture only.

[Downrigger]

with ISO 400..I didn't want to use any higher ISO values because I was told high ISO values spoilt the photo.

Others should weigh in on this but for most recently made sensors, I think you have room to move up on your ISO without incurring significant noise for this sort of photo. On my Nikon D600 it becomes an issue at about 1250. Also, I think the sort of fields you have in the image are important - I think noise will be more evident if there are homogeneously colored/toned parts of the image.

[bnnrcn]

Thank you Mark,your comment is really relieving:-)

Others should weigh in on this but for most recently made sensors, I think you have room to move up on your ISO without incurring significant noise for this sort of photo. On my Nikon D600 it becomes an issue at about 1250. Also, I think the sort of fields you have in the image are important - I think noise will be more evident if there are homogeneously colored/toned parts of the image.

[Downrigger]

Thank you Mark,your comment is really relieving:-)

Not sure it should be - it is my understanding (note the "I think") only. Further.. firstly I don't know what camera you are shooting with and second would like some more discussion of how to respect high ISO settings from some of the "pros" here.