On the floor
The session on your phone, at cat height, ordered by the light you have.
Today · living roomat cat height
04:58Kitchen sill1.2 m
07:10Sofa, window side0.9 m
18:22Hall, golden hour2.4 m
20:14Desk, lamp only3.1 m
Cat Photography,
Around the Light
Turn any room and any hour into a shootable setup. Built for people who photograph cats.
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photosbycat.com/session
3 cats · 1 room
LIGHT WINDOWS
Pre-dawn04:58 – 05:41
Window light07:10 – 09:30
Golden hour18:22 – 19:05
Lamp onlyafter 20:14
Trusted by 40,000+ cat photographers worldwide
Plan Any Shoot in One Pass
Give it the cat, the room and the hour you have, and get a setup you can shoot in ten minutes.
- One plan per session, not per photo
- Lens, aperture and distance included
- Works with one window and one lamp
photosbycat.com/session/living-room
Living room · one session3 setups
Setup 1Kitchen sill · north
04:58 pre-dawn50mm · f/21.2 m away
Setup 2Sofa · window side
07:10 window light35mm · f/1.80.9 m away
Setup 3Desk · lamp only
20:14 after dark85mm · f/2.81.6 m away
Lens, aperture and distance for every setuplamp fallback
Describe the Shot You Want
Say what you're after in plain language and get a shootable setup, not a wall of theory.
- "Black cat, white wall, no flash"
- Every suggestion is something you can adjust
- Re-ask for one thing instead of starting over
New session
Black cat, white wall, no flash. She wakes up around seven, so keep it to the window side.
Build setupeditable · 4 shots
Shot 1 · Black cat on the white wallno flash
Shot 2 · Backlit whiskers at the windowf/2
Shot 3 · Paws under the desk lampISO 1600
Shot 4 · Sleeping cat, side light1/60
Every Source, One Plan
Sun position, weather, window orientation and your cat's routine, pulled into a single setup.
- Know when your window actually gets light
- Plan around naps instead of fighting them
- One plan even when the weather changes
One plan · merged sources
Sun positionWindow facingCat's routine
04:58Kitchen sillcat asleep
07:10Sofa by the windowclear sky
20:14Desk under the lampno flash
Catch the Right Hour
Cats are most themselves at dawn and dusk. photosbycat sequences the session around it.
- Pre-dawn and golden hour windows
- What to shoot while the cat sleeps
- Fallback setups for a grey afternoon
Light · living room · today
Light windowsclear · 22% cloud
04:5809:3013:0018:2220:14
Pre-dawn · 04:58-05:41cat still asleep, set up first
Window light · 07:10-09:30shoot low, at cat height
Golden hour · 18:22-19:05backlight the whiskers
Lamp only · 20:14-22:00raise ISO, no flash
Send It to Your Kit
Push the setup to your phone, your notes, or straight into your own agent.
- Copy settings to your camera app
- Share a session with a co-shooter
- Reuse any session as a starting point
Send
Living room · one session
5 setups · 4 light windows
IMGCamera appsettings block, paste once
@Co-shootersame session, shared link
{}Your agentJSON feed or webhook
Sent from one session · nothing re-typed on set
From an Idea to a Shootable Shot
At the edit
Every frame tagged with the light and the settings you actually shot.
Next session
Reuse a setup, shift the hour, keep the parts that worked.
Living room · same setup, hour moved4 of 5 setups kept
Mon
07:10
Tue
07:09
Wed
07:08
Thu
07:06
Fri
07:05
DaySpotLight windowDistance
MonKitchen sill07:10-07:381.2 m
MonSofa, window side07:44-08:120.9 m
TueWindow ledge07:09-07:352.4 m
TueDesk chair07:41-08:053.1 m
WedHall floor07:08-07:331.6 m
WedBookshelf top07:39-08:022.2 m
ThuBed corner07:06-07:301.8 m
ThuBathroom sill07:36-07:582.7 m
FriBalcony door07:05-07:284.3 m
Same setup, new hour · light windows recomputed for every spot
How People Use photosbycat
Your own cats
Get consistent portraits without turning the living room into a studio.
Foster & rescue
Shoot adoptable cats well in whatever light the house already has.
Shelters
Turn a phone and one window into adoption-ready photos.
Pet brands
Plan product shots around a cat that will not sit still.
Start from a Shoot Template
Six setups people already shoot — copy one and re-time it to your own window.
Recent Field Notes
Session notes and light tests from people photographing cats at home.
Getting a black cat to read on a white wall
Sept 18, 2026Black fur against a white wall is the hardest reading your phone will try to meter. What we changed about the wall, the window, and how close we stood.
Why dawn beats every lamp you own
Sept 04, 2026We shot the same cat at first light and again under three lamps. Dawn won on color, on the cat's mood, and on how little gear it took.
A ten-minute session that actually works
Aug 22, 2026One window, one cat, ten minutes, four frames worth keeping. The order of shots we used and the two we stopped taking.
Frequently asked questions
How sessions, light timing, and reuse work.
An AI shot planner for photographing cats. You describe your cat and the room, and it lays out a session around the natural light you already have and the hours your cat is actually awake.
No. The plan is built around the cat you have: short blocks, a set-up you finish before the cat arrives, and a way to pick the session back up when it walks off.
Neither. A phone, one window with daylight, and a surface the cat already likes are enough to run most templates start to finish.
It works out the light at your address through the day — which way the window faces, how the sun moves across it, and how bright it stays — then places each shot where that light is steadiest.
Yes. Those sessions are shorter and skip the set-up frames, so you can photograph several cats in the same room, in the same light, without moving anything between them.
Yes. A saved session keeps its shot list, light window, and timings, so you can run it again on the next cat or the next clear morning.
#1 Product of the Week
From an idea to a shootable shot
Describe the cat and the room you have, and photosbycat sets up a session you can shoot in ten minutes.
Get the free template