Leo is a beautiful Russian Blue who I could hardly wait to get in front of my camera and capture his many characteristics. His owners brought me in to capture his image in the way that they see him: calm and princely. I'm going to let you in on a few tricks up my sleeve that I used in these images and that have stumped other professionals for years.
When I first met Leo, I realized that the color of his fur varies greatly depending on the light and color properties, so I knew I wanted to capture this. Also, his eyes and gaze were so stunning, so I searched for ways to highlight them.
In this first image, I simply followed him until he comfortably sat in front of a brightly painted wall. Most people can tell whether their cat looks natural or posed in an image, so I like to let the animal get nice and cozy. I waited for him to look to my right in order to get the light to fall on his face in a cross butterfly / 45 lighting pattern. I wanted to highlight the different shades and tones of grey that his fur had to offer. Using the gentle penumbra fade of the back wall, I wanted a sort of checkered look in contrast between his face and the wall. Otherwise there wouldn't be much depth perception, and it would almost look like his head is plastered to the wall that was a solid three feet behind him. Sometimes depth of field can accomplish this, but I prefer to create tonal depth to give the eye something else to draw from.
In this second image, I once again waited for him to get settled in one of his favorite places to survey his kingdom, the living room floor. When I revealed the tricks I used in this image and the following image to a class of photography students, both the professor and students were equally surprised. One trick up my sleeve that I often pull out is underexposing by 2-4 stops. Yes, if you took a B&W film class in high school or college you would have learned about exposing for the middle grey, but I like to break the rules once I've learned them. Instead, I actually exposed for the light falling on his eye and did a fair bit of digital dodging / burning in post production. I wanted your eye to go straight to his expression, and secondarily to the fact that he was lounging. I brought faint hints of the floor he was laying on back in post production, just so it didn't look like he was in a black abyss. However, the background was not a focus for this image, so I tried to make it as subtle as could be. I believe this image best depicts Leo's personality: resplendent.
In this final image, I wanted to depict Leo as the anti-social cat that he is. I disregarded a few of my preferences for this image by setting up lights and a background, but these additions definitely worked for this image. The look of surprise on Leo's face perfectly shows how he feels when he sees other real cats, let alone fake cats. I laid on my stomach and shot with a telephoto lens, lighting both Leo and the background with studio lights. The part that stumped other photographers in this image is that someone is actually holding Leo and firing my second flash for me. When I took this image, I had two flashes that fired, but one had to be tripped by the other, and the angle at which I wanted to face the lights wasn't going to accommodate for this. So I had a second shooter trip it with a telephoto distanced light.
When photography enthusiasts chat with me these days, they are more curious about what type of equipment I use than how I shoot. I don't think the message is getting across boldly enough: the quality of the image does not depend on the camera, it depends on the person holding the camera.
I went through photography school with a Nikon D40. I still have winning shots from that camera that people still purchase from me. Sure, I don't still shoot with the equipment I had for this third image (taken at a separate time than the previous two), but I want to hit on the point that you can make the shot happen with or without fancy equipment.
I had a great time capturing Leo's image, and I'm really thankful for the knowledge of techniques I have when it comes to photographing animals. It's always my goal to catch the sides of the animal in front of my camera that the owners most love, and I believe I captured the calm and princely characteristics that Leo so regularly exudes.