My wife loves both pictures equally just because she loves him so much. But for an outsider, I do believe that the picture at eye level is much more engaging and more interesting to look at.

Getting down on the floor can also reveal more details of the cat’s surroundings, than standing up and shooting downwards.

Getting down on the ground sometimes comes at the expense of getting a bit dirty when outside but the bonus is often that your cat tend to give you a questioning and funny look when you lay down.

So get down to eye level and see the difference!

But the result is definitely worth it. Here are is another example of kitten Binx.

The second tip for taking better cat pictures goes together with getting down on eye-level with your cat subject.

Cat Photography Tip Nr 2 – “Eye contact creates more engaging pictures”

Eye contact is a very important concept in photography and is key for many shots in cat photography too. Your job as a photographer is being as interesting as you can be for your cat, so that you can make eye contact while taking pictures.

The expression of your cat’s face is also important. With some cats, if their ears are turned backwards, they look anxious or suspicious. I don’t find that beautiful at all. But when your cat is looking right at you attentively and their ears are facing you, the photograph will look the most warm and open.

When people are looking at these photographs, they have the feeling the cat is looking right at them and they get the sense that animal is making eye contact with them.

I believe eye contact is paramount in cat photography. It makes the photograph more engaging.

There are a few methods I often use to get Casper’s attention.

The method with a high succes rate to get your cat to look into the lens, is to whistle or to make a specific noise combined with using a toy (a feather on a stick works for Casper).

Hold it high and once you get your cat’s attention, bring the toy down to near or just above the lens so the cat is looking right into the lens.
Then capture a compelling shot (for example an alerted cat in hunter mode ready to pounce from a prey’s perspective…).

This works like charm for me! If you want to share how are making your cat look into the lens, let us know in the comments below.

Cat Photography Tip Nr 3 – “Sharp eyes are essential for great cat photographs”

In portraits it is very important to have the eyes sharp.
The very first thing we look at in a picture are the eyes, so having the eyes tack sharp is essential to the success of every picture. This is valid too for cat pictures.

Eyes of people and animals can be very expressive.
They say the eyes are the windows to the soul.

When taking a shot straight on towards the cat’s face, pay attention not to focus on the nose but on the eyes, especially when you use a shallow depth of field (low aperture).
I must say that most of the photographs I have of my cat Casper with unsharp eyes are never used for sharing or a post. Nowadays almost every point and shoot camera and almost all smart phones allow you to set the focus point manually on a specific place in the frame.

The sharpness of a picture is also very much related to camera movement or better, the lack of camera mouvement. Camera mouvement causes blurriness of your picture. The solution to this is no camera movement at all, a higher shutter speed or a higher ISO. My basic solution to have a high enough shutter speed is moving to a spot with more ambient light if that is possible.

You can download the camera settings I use 99% of the time here: My DSLR Cat photography Camera Settings – Cheat Sheet

This will help you understand the way I make my pictures even more.

So remember to focus on the cat’s eyes every time they are visible in the viewfinder.
Use this tip and your picture quality will strongly improve.

If you are close to your cat and you need to choose one of the eyes of the cat to focus on. Always focus on the eye closest towards your face. This way the picture will look the most natural.

You want to share your opinion or your experience with this topic? Please! I’d love to hear your opinion.