Cat's eyes

[dspindle]

<p>I took a couple shots of my cat with my D70s. The camera was set on auto, and I was using the kit lens (18-70mm). The shot was taken in the house with little light. The speedlight popped up automatically. <br>

My cat has vivid green/gold eyes and I wanted to capture the color. The picture seemed to be exposed correctly, but the cat's eyes were almost opaque. They were a washed out light grey, and even the black iris's were almost faded out completely. Very weird result. <br>

I'm assuming that to get the result I want, I'll need to use available light. If I can get my cat to wait while I set up my tripod! <br>

Any ideas why this happened? <br>

Thanks!</p>

[christina_santavicca]

<p>Hello Dave,<br>

My guess would be it's a result of the pop-up flash. BTW, not to be confused with a speedlight flash. Can you upload an example??</p>

[jim_mohundro1]

Using the on-camera flash on my D200, I fairly frequently have got the equivalent of "red eye" as I've photographed my cats. I've had much better luck with window light and no flash. I agree that cats seem to work (or, mostly, sleep) on different schedules from us, their staff. Keep using the kit lens. What could be more appropriate?

[tedms gallery]

<p>You will probably not be able to capture the real cat's eyes with an SLR. The cat's eye will react to the mirror movement, and their eyes will change color. <br>

I have been able to capture the correct eye color of the cat with rangefinders and fast lens.</p>

[christina_santavicca]

<p> taken with a D60, and an sb600 with beauty dish reflector</p>

[christina_santavicca]

<p> taken with a D60, and an sb600 with beauty dish reflector</p><div></div>

[christina_santavicca]

<p>was a stray down in florida, when we lived there. we are now back home in pittsburgh, and she likes trying to get the snow through the window, lol. btw, she was the cleanest stray ud ever seen in ur life. u see her cleaning herself right now. i mean, cats do this, i know, but she's queen clean friek of the felines, hahaha</p><div></div>

[pete_s.]

<p>Great shots Christina.</p>

<p>Don't know about cat's eyes but I can think of a couple things that could matter:</p>

<p>1) As mentioned above sound of the mirror and aperture movement make the cat react. A few humans can blink.<br /> Not much to do about this one except using a faster camera or another type of camera like a point and shoot.</p>

<p>2) TTL preflash makes the cat react. (The D70s has a shutter lag of about 0.1 seconds) Some humans blink.<br /> Set the flash in manual mode.</p>

<p>3) Angle of the flash towards the cat. (Popup flash is the worst, causes red eyes in humans due to reflections in the eye).<br /> You need to bounce the flash light or place the flash further from the camera. Neither can be done with the popup flash. You need something like the SB600 for that.</p>

<p>4) Illumination level in the room. Pupils are dilated in low lighting levels so "red eye" is easier to get.<br /> Turn up the room lights but shoot with flash as before.</p>

[christina_santavicca]

<p>Thanks Pete ;) </p>

[michael_borland]

<p>Here is a shot of my cat's eyes. I used light from a large window and got him close to it so his irises are closed. I've also had good results with an ordinary fluorescent lamp, or bouncing flash from the ceiling or a wall. One thing to avoid is monitor preflash, for example, with Nikon CLS and a remote flash. My cat (and many people) blinks every time.</p>

<p><img src="http://stinky-tofu.smugmug.com/photos/786468243_ex8WS-O.jpg" alt="" width="690" height="690" /></p>

[jorish]

<p>If you don't have a 'real' flash (sorry, don't know how else to describe it), you might also try to diffuse the one on your camera with one of those small see through balls that come with some brands of washing powder. In my experience they fit perfectly over the flash and diffuse the light enough to take away most of the red eye (humans) / opaque eye (animals) effect.</p>

<p>I've never experienced the animals reacting to my shutter, but maybe that's due to the fact that I have a newer camera (D300) with shorter shutter lag? Just guessing here.</p>

<p>Anyway, angling away the light (perhaps use cardboard and bounce via the ceiling) or diffusing it are good options in almost all circumstances, and I think they might help here as well.</p>

[christina_santavicca]

<p>Well said Joris</p>

[dspindle]

<p>Thanks for all the responses. I'll try to upload a picture if I can..even though it pales in comparison to the wonderful shots above. The eyes weren't as grey as I thought, but trust me, her eyes are a brilliant green/gold. The eyes in this picture don't even come close. I believe I will work on getting closer, and finding a way to use natural light. Thanks for the great responses!</p><div></div>

[john_morris4]

<p>You can use available light (no flash) without your tripod, if there's enough light available. You don't want it too dark, anyway, or there won't be much iris to see. Find a nice bright window, for example.</p>

[john_morris4]

<p>I meant to attach a picture....</p><div></div>

[dspindle]

<p>Thanks everyone, for your help! It's greatly appreciated!<br>

Dave</p>

[sjmurray]

<p>Dave, lots of good advice about using natural light such as having your cat near a window. I've shot a lot of cat "portraits" in such a manner. Check out my people and pets folder. I've used a D70 and the 18-70 lens too on some of them. Here's one of Monty standing quite close to a window. To avoid using a tripod (cats don't sit around long enough!) I use iso 1600, wide open aperture and hand hold the camera. </p><div></div>