ManuelWieler

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Mar, 2015

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Behind The Lens

Location

I took this photo at home in last winter. I bought my first and new cam in December and did not have so much opportunity to go outside as the weather was really bad for practicing. So I started practice by photographing our cats.

Time

It was on the early afternoon. Balou (the cat) was almost asleep when I saw him lying there, in a perfect angle and position.

Lighting

The lighting is only the available / natural light, which was quite softened, due to the cloud covered sky. The light got in through a window front of 9 square-meters.

Equipment

The equipment used was a Panasonic Lumix DMC-G6 DSLM together with the Panasonic G Vario 14-140mm f3.5-5.4 lens. Settings for this picture have been 140mm, f5.4, ISO160, Aperture Priority mode, free hands.

Inspiration

As a "rookie" in photography it often happened that the mood and inspiration for a photo came by shooting or post-production. This time it was simple: he just lay there pretty cute, so I wanted to create a close portrait shot.

Editing

I did the usual workflow for portraits. The big difference between cat/animal and people portrait is the sharpness. As you want to have women a soft skin, you want to have the animal's fur on-point and as sharp as possible. So, the post-processing was first the WB adjustments, gradation curves and sharpness with CameraRAW. After that I had some little post-processing in Photoshop, containing some extra sharpness for the eyes, noise reduction of the background and of course the greyscales for the differenct color channels.

In my camera bag

It depends on what I am going to photograph. It's my Lumix G6, together with the 14-140mm lens and the lens hood. If I plan something with long exposure or HDR, I take my tripod with me.

Feedback

In pet and animal photography you have to be patient and creative. As Balou was almost asleep, I tried to catch his attention by clapping, calling, snapping, but he always closed his eyes again and again when I finally was ready to press the shutter. Don't be too over-eager and stubborn about a specific motive you have in your mind. Be flexible and make the best of the situation the pets/animals grant you. Also, try different things in post-processing. If you are not satisfied by your result but don't know what's wrong, just make a 5-minute break and you will see the problem pretty quick after you returned to your photo.

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ManuelWieler

ManuelWieler

Close-Up

Behind The Lens

See more amazing photos, follow ManuelWieler

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