A Couple of the Cat

[Adzman808]

Hi all,

This is my first picture post here (I joined today)

So firstly let me say hello, I'm Adam!

Secondly if you guys have a on going thread for cat pictures or whatever and I shouldn't be starting one, then please accept my apologies in advance.

Well on to the snaps!

Constructive critique more than welcome, but please "constructive" I'm just an amateur and quite thin skinned!!

Hide and Seek Champion by Adam, on Flickr

This isn't some sort of personal master piece or anything, more personal reportage, but still, thoughts welcome..

Now this next one

Lioness by Adam, on Flickr

well FWIW (we're ofay with common fora abrvs here right?!!) this one (no matter what you say about it) marked a bit of mental turning point for me in regards to my shots, so I'm certainly interested in your comments.

Thanks in advance, and again, apologies if this shouldn't be posted here

[just me]

Hi Adam.......Welcome.....I am glad you joined, and I am sure you like it here......

This is the right thread for cat images, or for any other images regarding pets........

For myself I am not very able to give advise or critique, as I am not an expert, as many other members here are, most of the time I need their help with this, which is always given in a very friendly manner.......

But I can say, that I like your cat images you posted today......

Griddi....

[pnodrog]

Hi Adam, welcome to CinC. By my reckoning you have posted in the correct place.

Your cat obviously needs some lessons in the correct sleeping posture. As you said like a lot of photographs we take they are of a personal nature and as such are of much more interest to those that have patted the cat. The details of the cat are largely lost in shadow and need lightening. It is possible when viewing using your monitor the cat is light enough. One problem that is often encountered is that in general most computer monitors are set to bright and when the image is viewed on a calibrated monitor it appears darker than the photographer intended. Not sure if it happened in this case but is something to be aware of.

The second image captures a sense of exploration and is taken from a very good view point. It would be improved by some cropping. The cat is more or less central and you would get a better composition if left side was cropped so the gap between the two shrubs was not in the photo and also some cropped of the top and bottom. The cat is the subject matter and the background gives it context but is less important. Always difficult when you have strong highlights and shadows to deal with.

I hope your skin is thick enough for my comments if not I apologise profusely.

[Adzman808]

Hi Adam.......Welcome.....I am glad you joined, and I am sure you like it here......

This is the right thread for cat images, or for any other images regarding pets........

For myself I am not very able to give advise or critique, as I am not an expert, as many other members here are, most of the time I need their help with this, which is always given in a very friendly manner.......

But I can say, that I like your cat images you posted today......

Griddi....

Hi Griddi (sorry but I will always think of you as Omi)

Yes I took your advice and joined up!

To anyone else I "know" Griddi from a different photography forum, and I was lamenting the lack of places for talking about shots, rather than just gear and PP or being heckled by idiots because they don't like what camera brand you do and she recommended here!

You don't have to be an expert to critique Omi! In fact IMO some expert criticism can be too expert... Y'know the type? When you take a shot of say 400 Christmas lights and someone says 'but you've slightly blown the highlight on the one that's 122nd from the left'

If you like or dislike something, just say why, there's no right or wrong!

[just me]

Hi Griddi (sorry but I will always think of you as Omi)

Yes I took your advice and joined up!

To anyone else I "know" Griddi from a different photography forum, and I was lamenting the lack of places for talking about shots, rather than just gear and PP or being heckled by idiots because they don't like what camera brand you do and she recommended here!

You don't have to be an expert to critique Omi! In fact IMO some expert criticism can be too expert... Y'know the type? When you take a shot of say 400 Christmas lights and someone says 'but you've slightly blown the highlight on the one that's 122nd from the left'

If you like or dislike something, just say why, there's no right or wrong!

Ha-Ha ....Adam.......I will stay for you as Omi ......

Tank you for your kind words and advise......

Omi......

[Adzman808]

Hi Adam, welcome to CinC. By my reckoning you have posted in the correct place.

Your cat obviously needs some lessons in the correct sleeping posture. As you said like a lot of photographs we take they are of a personal nature and as such are of much more interest to those that have patted the cat. The details of the cat are largely lost in shadow and need lightening. It is possible when viewing using your monitor the cat is light enough. One problem that is often encountered is that in general most computer monitors are set to bright and when the image is viewed on a calibrated monitor it appears darker than the photographer intended. Not sure if it happened in this case but is something to be aware of.

The second image captures a sense of exploration and is taken from a very good view point. It would be improved by some cropping. The cat is more or less central and you would get a better composition if left side was cropped so the gap between the two shrubs was not in the photo and also some cropped of the top and bottom. The cat is the subject matter and the background gives it context but is less important. Always difficult when you have strong highlights and shadows to deal with.

I hope your skin is thick enough for my comments if not I apologise profusely.

Not at all, that's EXACTLY what I'm looking for, I see some of the critique groups on Flickr or comments on DPR, and they're things like "it's crap, delete it"

Not helpful!

I'm not sure if I'm meant to critique back to critique!! But I'm certainly not disagreeing with you, and no I don't have a calibrated monitor!

[rtbaum]

Welcome to CiC, Adam. First, I want to agree with others in that cropping behind the cat will improve the composition of 'lioness.' CiC has a nice section for tutorials that I find quite useful for getting me started in the right direction. One concept that I am learning the hard way is learning to keep it simple. If you are interested in pet photography I encourage you to check out posts by RPCrowe, he is arguably the most capable photographer on the site...and he uses it to a noble cause.

I look forward to many posts and getting to know you better......Oh yeah....Griddi is a lot better than she lets on

[Shadowman]

Hi Adam,

Welcome to the group. There are hundreds of cat threads on this forum and they could be anywhere depending on the discussion brought forth. You've got some neat captures there of a difficult subject, nice efforts.

[bnnrcn]

Welcome Adam I would crop the wooden part at the top in the first image for a less distracting look.

[Kaye Leggett]

Welcome Adam. I'm with Binnur in that a crop is needed of the wooden part - the eye then focuses better on the cat. I love the dangly legsand the fact that they are not in focus, it adds to the relaxed nature of the image

[bnnrcn]

In addition to my first comment, you might try leaving a very thin part of that wooden part if you crop just below the hinge and you might also try cropping the right wooden part into a thin column.Then, I think they wouldn't distract and they would act like a frame

[jcuknz]

Having shared my living quarters with a Lady very much like her I am completely biased .... on the other hand as a photographer I feel the real shot is this with the suggestion of a catchlight, added in editing, to the eye.

As for the second shot the 'Rule of Thirds' is often debunked but the fact remains it is a valid place to have the subject and often adds interest to an otherwise bland subject. So a crop from the left is the suggestion repeated from above. As to if this is correct or I simply appreciate it from indoctrination I really do not know

Plus some darkening of the grass in front of her and lightening her a little .....

[Adzman808]

Thanks John,

I like what you've done with the 'catch light' very much, no clue how to do myself, but like it very much.

The crop works very well, but we must be careful not to get too close, for not a single part of that image is actually in focus, plus the highlights look like some sort of nuclear meltdown, but B&W does disguise that a tiny bit

[jcuknz]

Adam, The catchlight is very easy with an editor which permits you to control the size of the paint brush, here I was using a 2<4 pixel brush are enlaarging the image on my monitor so I could see where it is going. The idea came from an American who used to poke a fine needle through his slides which let the projector light through unhindered ... not as good a we can do with digital where pure white is a bit bright and better is the next step darker. I have used two circles, of white in the middle and slightly larger a grey shade, when the eye has been larger in the image. On second thoughts I think the catchlight is a wee bit on the low side in your shot. Another approach which I have not deliberately tried would be to knock the power of the on-board pop-up flash to minus two stops or more to give a catchlight without unduely affecting the image being taken by ambient light.
Few of my photographs are ever sharp and the use of sharpening tool, nothing special like USM or High pass sharpen, just sharpen or sharpen more in my PSP editor is the limit of my skill/interest. There are other techniques like splitting into A-B-Lightness in Adobe or CMYK and sharpening just the lightness layer as noise is a feature of colour apparently so I read years ago. The essential part of your prowling cat ... the cat ... comes up quite nicely and the detail in the shadow looks sharp enough to me. A small point I thought afterwards was the burnt out fir on her left chest and leg which might be recovered or replaced by careful cloning of the background.

[IzzieK]

I like your little lady, Adam and I think all of the advice that needed to be given has already been given. Although I like the edit of John, I missed the dangly legs there. For me a bit of cropping on the left side up to the grey chair (?) will suffice. Also to clone out the red little fabric on the right hand side...

Oh, what software are you using for editing and I can't see any EXIF on your image...

[Adzman808]

Thanks for the helpful and insightful comments.

To those that asked, I use Capture One Pro for my (fairly minimal tbh) PP work

[IzzieK]

Thanks for the helpful and insightful comments.

To those that asked, I use Capture One Pro for my (fairly minimal tbh) PP work

'TBH I do not know that software so I can't help you as per my advice of cloning and removing tangents and other stuffs...

[Adzman808]

'TBH I do not know that software so I can't help you as per my advice of cloning and removing tangents and other stuffs...

I know it can do it, I managed it one time, but then haven't done it since, so I unlearned it! A bit like long division

[IzzieK]

I know it can do it, I managed it one time, but then haven't done it since, so I unlearned it! A bit like long division

Hate maths -- but what do I do most of the time? -- maths.