Tamron Blog: Cute Cat Captures

Our blog this week focuses on an indoor shoot that revolves around a rather cute kitten (one, two three... say 'aww') who pulled a few funny faces at the camera pointing in her direction at first but after a while, the need for sleep started to take over so she was much more relaxed. 

As with any pet, photographing them while they're content and comfortable is much easier than when they're full of energy and bouncing around. With dogs, a good time to photograph them is after a walk when they're resting but with cats, you don't get this luxury (unless you do take your cat for a walk, of course). Instead, just look for when they're curling up in a favourite spot and hit the shutter button a few times while they're getting comfortable. 

Our cute kitten shoot took place in a flat so as space was a premium, we reached for the 60mm Tamron lens as it was easier to work with than a lens with a longer focal length and the f/2 maximum aperture makes it perfect for indoor photography where light levels tend to be lower. Do remember that when working with these lower aperture numbers that depth of field will be small but we actually like how just the kitten's face is in focus and everything else has a warm, soft blur to it.

To remove distractions further you can convert your pet portraits to black & white. The below is the same shot as above, just tweaked in Photoshop. We adjusted the filters slightly and added a subtle vignette to really focus the eye on the kitten's face. 

We'd love to see your cute pet photos so please do share them with us in the Totally Tamron Gallery.