Sassy Portrait

[Vrgl]

Yes I was unprepared-had to use the on camera flash. Also my background could be better. But I like the exposure on the cat and the pose. What do you think? suggestions please...

Sassy by kutsies pics, on Flickr

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Mary,

Are you looking for PP suggestions to improve this (quite nice) shot?
Or shooting advice?

Most obvious PP advice would be to either straigten it, so the wood is parallel to the edge of the image, or clone that out by extending the green background.

Trying to remove the mesh pattern in green areas might be good too, this is possible with something called Neat Image - which is a noise reducer - I just tried it on this and it worked quite well.



Cheers,

[Vrgl]

Yes Dave those are the suggestions I am looking for-sorry I was vague. Is Neat Image a plug in? Thanks so much for the help!-M

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Mary,

Is Neat Image a plug in?

Yes, have a look at this thread, where I describe how easy it can be to use (it also has a link to the suppliers website and I think there is a free trial period too)

My Neat Image thread.

In my example above, in addition to Neat Image, I did use a wipe over of Elements blur tool in the larger plain areas (below the chin and in front of the eyes), but that's mainly because I was working from the small picture, if you use Neat Image on the larger version (i.e. before downsizing for web display), it should be better and may not need that.

Cheers,

[ggt]

You know, the think about living creatures is that we tend to focus exclusively on the eyes. Sassy's are so clear and bright that I wasn't disturbed by the background. The suggestions above are correct, IMHO. But I think you should be proud of capturing those eyes so well. I might also used the spot healing tool to clean up the spots in side her ear, they were the 2nd thing I focused on.

My cat isn't nearly so cooperative.

ggt

[Cantab]

Mary, I agree with most of the other comments but want to add that what attracted me to this picture was how you caught the cat's rapt attention (on a bowl of food being prepared?!).