Riley on Kitchen Table.

Available light.. November, 1999

Riley sat here for just long enough for me to grab this image. Cats seem to know when you're shooting them and immediately cease doing whatever it was that drew you to them in the first place. I placed his head carefully against a plain part of the background, between the windows, concealing a particulary ugly fridge behind his body.

Lighting is what makes this image work That and the fact that Riley is quite a poser!. The late afternoon sun is quite warm, which works well with Riley's fur and the wood, and the low angle crosslighting provides ideal modelling. Note the colour difference between the view out the window and the direct light. A white wall, just out of frame to the left bounced some fill light onto Riley's chest and forelegs, nicely separating him from the dark background.

I used manual exposure,of course. The camera would have seen all the dark parts of the frame and exposed accordingly, thus overexposing the subject. I adjusted the aperture so that I just barely held detail on the cat's face and let the shadows fall where they may. In fact, I darkened the shadow areas near the floor in Photoshop, to add drama to the image and conceal more ugliness in the lino flooring. I considered removing the left hand window and window shadow with Photoshop, too. Try blocking it out with your hand and decide if I was right.