Best setting for photographing indoor animals

MelissaAK81

Hi there! I received a Canon T2i for Christmas and have been enjoying it! I recently was asked to photograph a friends cats. I have been trying to read the manual and practice taking pictures in different modes with my kids seeing they run around about as much as a very active cat! (if not more) I haven't found anything that I LOVE when taking these pictures. I have the standard lens that came with the camera and also the 50mm f1.8 lens.

Which one is best to use and at which settings in your opinion? I know this will be a starting point and I may have to adjust a little, but anything you can help me with would be amazing. It will be 3 cats at once and in medium to low lighting. She prefers I don't use a flash because her cats are skittish so that also puts another kink into how to take a good picture. Thank you again for any help you can give me.

Moose

Howdy @MelissaAK81 - As you can imagine, the key to a great image is how a subject or scene is lit. When you're capturing images under poor, artificial light, it's really hard to make images "pop". I would definitely use your 50mm f/1.8 and focus on creating as much ambient light as possible.

If you can shoot near a north/south facing window that has bright natural light shining through that would be ideal. You don't want the sun actually illuminating your subjects, you just want the ambient daylight coming through.

Also, if you can setup a table or a couple chairs behind the cats, you can drape a solid bed sheet (white would probably be best) to act as a backdrop.

Shoot in Aperture priority (Av), set the f-number to f/2.8 since you're capturing more than one cat at a time. You might have to bump it up to f/4 in order to get all the cats in focus. Take a couple test shots, zoom in and make sure everything's sharp. Adjust your ISO to Auto and also set a custom white balance. This will ensure accurate exposures and spot on colors.

One thing you'll need to be careful of is subject blur and camera shake. If at all possible, use a tripod to eliminate any chance of camera shake. In term of subject blur, make sure the shutter speed doesn't fall lower than 1/125. If it does, you'll need to raise the ISO manually or turn up the amount of ambient light in the room.

Hope that all makes sense and happy shooting! :)