Well here's my old kitty. She'll be 19 in July. Also acquired from a shelter, in keeping with the theme in the other thread. And the most difficult photo subject I've ever had. Not that she doesn't behave.. she's the most domesticated cat I've ever seen, I mean she never learned that cats are supposed to be aloof. She loves attention, and gets jealous if I pay attention to other things, like my laptop. I can't deal with the black fur. I have no idea how to work with it. I've tried shooting her in the sun, but then I get a strong white reflection that completely destroys the real color (or at least fails to capture the real brown tones that her fur takes on in the sun). I have this unsubstantiated theory that the bayer pattern sensor used by most cameras has trouble reproducing black fur detail. Or indeed any black detail. I get excellent results from the cats at the zoo, under varying lighting conditions from direct sun to poor artificial lighting. None of them happen to be melanistic though.. which means black, the black panther is just a melanistic leopard, it's a variation, not a species. Part of the problem, I'm sure, is figuring how to expose for the fur. Shadow detail is always plagued by noise, so how much detail can you get if the main subject reflects about as much light as a dark shadow? Any suggestions on how to proceed would be appreciated. My problem is I want to show her fur BLACK. If I shine light at it it reflects strong white highlights. I've tried taking pictures of her many times, but I've never really been happy with what I've produced. The first one, with her nibbling the plant, is perhaps my favorite.. just because it shows off the carnivorous teeth even though she's just nibbling a house plant.. I like the contrast. It shows just how much of a vicious predator she really is. The answer being not at all.
Maybe try a different RAW converter? <img src="http://www.longenbach.net/assets/images/db_images/db_IMG_7045a1.jpg" /> The white highlights are real on her. She's got a lot of stray white hairs. Maybe use a fast lens w/o flash?
Well I guess shooting in RAW to begin with would be a start... I generally don't use RAW because I don't think I'm adept enough at using the converter options for it to matter. I have a terrible time judging exposure, so when I have a gazillion different exposure adjustments it doesn't help me much. I'm thinking I need to get a good tripod, to begin with. I've tried shooting her in darker ambient lighting with the tripod that I currently have, but I don't think it's stable enough, I suspect it's shaking enough that I'm losing sharpness without getting what clearly looks like camera shake.
