Here Kitty Kitty

[Barbara Ponder]

Love the big cats and was able to snap a few at the zoo. CC welcome. The camera and lens are new and trying to learn them.

[Shadowman]

Nicely done.

[Barbara Ponder]

Thank you John! It amazes me that the wire that was between the cat and me does not show in the picture.

[Shadowman]

Thank you John! It amazes me that the wire that was between the cat and me does not show in the picture.

Normally the wire interferes with your camera's autofocus system.

[Barbara Ponder]

John, I think because the wire was wider about 2 inches, I would guess, I was able to focus at the cat and somehow the wire disappeared. The cat was in a fully wired enclosure. I find it odd especially since I took a picture of the same cat in the same enclosure several years ago, different camera and the fence shows.

[Dave Humphries]

~ It amazes me that the wire that was between the cat and me does not show in the picture.

Hi Barbara,

It all depends on the relative distances of camera to mesh and mesh to subject, then upon the aperture used and sensor size (since these both determine the Depth of Field).

You'll generally be successful as long as you can get (the camera) close to the mesh and the subject is some considerable distance behind it, as here. Shooting with as large a sensor camera as possible also helps, so a bridge camera, point and shoot, or phone are unlikely to be as successful as a FF (or APS-C) DSLR.

Where I have found it fails is typically birds in an aviary; where the mesh is some way back from you and the aviary, not being that large, has the bird perched near the mesh

It is a nice capture, but might stand an exposure increase of 2/3 a stop.

You did well to focus on the eyes.

Happy New Year, Dave

[Barbara Ponder]

Thanks for the explanation and critique! I also took some bird shots the same day and found that to be true! Now I know why, well kinda of as all the technical lingo is still a bit new to me. About to sound stupid here but by exposure increase you mean f stop?

[Rita]

A nice capture Barbara. Just out of curiosity what lens were you using for this?

[RhondaH]

Hi Barbara! I'm new here too and so as you're learning, I'm learning from your post too!!

I love the mood you create with this capture... the way the cat is looking aside, appears reflective... and here I am anthropomorphising the creature but your image has that feel to it. I love it.

It is a nice capture, but might stand an exposure increase of 2/3 a stop.

Dave, what would the result of this recommendation be?

[Dave Humphries]

Dave, what would the result of this recommendation be?

Hi Rhonda,

It would make it a bit brighter.

~ but by exposure increase you mean f stop?

Hi Barbara,

Not if you do it in Post Processing (PP), in LR (LightRoom) or ACR (Adobe Camera RAW), there is an adjustment called "Exposure", that is what I was suggesting.
At the time of shooting, then you had three (or four) options to increase exposure;

a slower shutter speed
a wider aperture (if possible)
a lower ISO

You shot this on Shutter Priority Auto; 1/500s, f/5.6, 800 iso - but with Exposure Compensation of minus 5/3 or - 1 2/3 stops, so the obvious fix would have been less Exposure Comp. - which would have probably given an aperture of f/4.5 instead of f/5.6.
Camera: Canon 7D Mk.2
Lens: Canon EF300mm f/4L IS USM

For both of you, here's an edit with the following applied:

increase in exposure by 0.65 (i.e. 2/3 stop)
increase in Clarity (+20)
downsize to be 900 px tall (so it fits vertical screen sizes)
sharpen (USM: 100%, 0.3 px, 1 threshold)

Compare in Lytebox and use arrow keys to switch between them.

HTH, Dave

[Dave Humphries]

A nice capture Barbara. Just out of curiosity what lens were you using for this?

Just noticed I have answered this above Rita

(Canon EF300mm f/4L IS USM)

[IzzieK]

Very nice, Barbara..I agree with Rhonda about the posing, the eyes...are beautiful. I like the edit of Dave.

[Barbara Ponder]

Thanks all for the comments and critiques. Dave I really like the edit! I use Aperture software. PS and LR seem way too overwhelming for me. Maybe some day.

[Ndukes]

WHERE...did you get that cat, where
Did you get that cat?

Very nice.

[purplehaze]

Beautiful image, Barbara. Just wanted to let you know, in case you didn't already, that Aperture's Definition slider will do for you pretty much what Dave's Clarity slider did, which is add local contrast to the mid-tones. Actually, Clarity can also take it away, but Aperture has the Skin Softener tool to do that.

[luvaneezer]

Love this photo, particularly the clarity of the eyes.
Dave - I like the changes you made very much. BTW - how did you find the metadata for the photo?

[FootLoose]

Great shot, Barbara, you caught it in an interesting pose.

[Barbara Ponder]

Thanks Diane and Greg.

[Manfred M]

Love this photo, particularly the clarity of the eyes.
Dave - I like the changes you made very much. BTW - how did you find the metadata for the photo?

The easiest way is to use a browser plugin that does that. I use fxif for Firefox (my preferred browser); just do a web search for an EXIF viewer for your favourite browser, download it and install it. One word of warning, though. Some image websites strip out the metadata, so there isn't anything you can do with one of those files except to go back and ask the photographer to post the data manually.

[Manfred M]

John, I think because the wire was wider about 2 inches, I would guess, I was able to focus at the cat and somehow the wire disappeared. The cat was in a fully wired enclosure. I find it odd especially since I took a picture of the same cat in the same enclosure several years ago, different camera and the fence shows.

If you look carefully, you can sometimes see artifacts from the wire. If you look beside the eye (camera left), you will see a tiny bit of gray softness running vertically. I suspect this is where the wire was.