Pet Portraits - please post them here

[Dave Humphries]

The backdrop and table cover were king-sized sheets. A lesson for the future is to not have wrinkles . I had the backdrop hung precariously at two corners. I could live with the drape-style folds, but the wrinkles are quite distracting. I'd like to PP them out, but when I try to select the backdrop for selective blurring (for example), I get halos around the subjects.

Is this any better Rick?

[rick55]

Is this any better Rick?

Wow! Much better, Dave. What's the secret ingredient? I can see a teeny bit of halo around Einstein (on the left), but it's far better than anything I was able to do.

Cheers,
Rick

[Dave Humphries]

Wow! Much better, Dave. What's the secret ingredient? I can see a teeny bit of halo around Einstein (on the left), but it's far better than anything I was able to do.

Thanks,

Yeah, I was quite pleased at what I achieved in less than 5 mins and one of those minutes was recovering the border.

I knew immediately how to fix it and it worked better than I expected.

The secret is Neat Image (yes, the noise reducing plug in).

In Elements 6:
I duplicated the background layer,
then opened the pic in Neat Image and forced that to sample the worst wrinkled area (just between the dogs) which it took as "noise" to be subtracted from the whole shot, I cranked both Luminance and Chrominance channels' subtraction right upto 100%.
then I (100%) erased over the dogs and image border to reveal the un-noise reduced detail, since I was rushing, I obviously strayed a bit giving a minor halo of "ruff stuff" around Einstein (Do apologise to him for me)

Obviously, with a bit more care, and on the full size image before the border goes on, it could be much better.
Also treating the green and white separately might give better results on the table top.

Great picture though Rick, I wouldn't know where to start with that many flashes.

Cheers,

[ScoutR]

I'd love C&C.

I cannot comment on lighting technique because I know nothing, but it looks great to me. The eye contact and sparkle in the eyes is wonderful and I really do not know how you got them to pose like that. Is everyone using crazy glue?

Frame looks good too.

Einstein & Albert

[Dave Humphries]

That's priceless Dave. My Father had a dog that looked similar to Sparkie. His was a LhasaPoo (sp) a cross between a Lhaso Apso and a poodle. He was a pretty laid back dog. My Father tamed and took in a feral cat (kitten), and the dog did not cause a fuss at all. They took to each other like best friends.

That Blackberry takes pretty good shots

Thanks Wendy,

Sparkie is a ****zu, he's getting on now, must be well over 15, we got him as a pup when Scott was still in a pushchair (buggy) and he's 19 now

Yes, they are friends, but Poppy, the Chi hua hua, rules (obviously)

They both cohabit (and share a large bed) with 2 of our 4 cats - the other two cats live in the lounge.

That picture did have a lot of PP, but since the Blackberry is a 2 (or 3?) MP camera with a lens that's only 1.5mm (1/16") across, it has no right to work at all

Cheers,

[Dave Humphries]

Well how odd; I typed the word and it now has asterisks in

Sparkie is a S h i t z u (please don't be offended), it is a real breed, honest!

[Antonio Correia]

Congratulations Dave for the initiative.
Brilliant idea.
I'm in

[rick55]

The secret is Neat Image (yes, the noise reducing plug in).

I use NeatImage myself, to I ran back through this (for the green only). The table top doesn't bother me as much: is it distracting?

One interesting thing I discovered: running NeatImage on the full size raw doesn't doo much. When I sized it down to the final size, and tried again, it did the trick: I love it. Thanks a million: this is a great tool to use.

Cheers,
Rick

[rick55]

I cannot comment on lighting technique because I know nothing, but it looks great to me. The eye contact and sparkle in the eyes is wonderful and I really do not know how you got them to pose like that. Is everyone using crazy glue?

Thanks, Wendy. FWIW, my posing technique was: 1) I had two people there, one to keep the dogs from jumping off the table, and kind of keep them in the general area, and their mommy to stand near me and get their attention; 2) I just kept shooting like crazy, when they sat up, when they laid down, when one was up and the other down. Their mommy kept saying things like, "Want to go for a walk?" "Want a treat?" It's hard being a model.

Cheers,
Rick

[Sahil]

Ohh a PET thread! Where to start where to start!
Probably should start with the boss;

Lol! He is giving the Sherlock Holmes types looks Great shot.

[ScoutR]

This is the best shot I have of my other cat. I will have to try for some better ones.

[Maritimer1]

I am just LOVING these photos. Will dig out one or two this weekend. Also, will definitely look into Neat Image one of these days. What a difference!

Dave, this was a great, smile-inducing idea!

Myra

[ScoutR]

Congratulations Dave for the initiative.
Brilliant idea.
I'm in

Hi Antonio: All 3 of these are great and I cannot pick a favourite. #2 does make me chuckle though.

Wendy

[Dave Humphries]

I use NeatImage myself, to I ran back through this (for the green only). The table top doesn't bother me as much: is it distracting?

One interesting thing I discovered: running NeatImage on the full size raw doesn't doo much. When I sized it down to the final size, and tried again, it did the trick: I love it. Thanks a million: this is a great tool to use.

Hi Rick,

No, the table top sheet doesn't distract me, I just thought being a different colour and lit from a different angle, it probably hadn't had optimal processing.

That is interesting about the size of image, sort of makes sense, thanks for that feedback.

All,

Thanks, but I don't think I deserve much credit for this thread myself, I was only extending Antonio's idea after another stray post hit his thread

Cheers,

[Maritimer1]

This is my daughter's cat "Kitty". It only took her six years to convince her dad to let her have one. She reigns supreme over us and the dog, and loves to awaken me between 3:00 and 4:00 each morning by batting my face with her little paw. I still like her, though

[ScoutR]

Nice Kitty, and great shot. The angle, light, composition and detail are excellent.

Wendy

[Maritimer1]

Thanks, Wendy. This was taken back in February when the light was really strong in the kitchen. I wanted to see how close I could get with the 50mm lens, AND I wanted a photo of her actually lapping the water. That took a few attempts

Myra

[Maritimer1]

This is our 13 year old Labrador Retriever. Ginny's been with us since she was a year old and is just a great old gal. This was from another session of playing with the 50mm 1.8 There's quite a bit of noise in this one (did reduce in PP) as I was trying to use available late afternoon light so had to bump the ISO on my Rebel xti to 800.

[ScoutR]

This is our 13 year old Labrador Retriever. Ginny's been with us since she was a year old and is just a great old gal. This was from another session of playing with the 50mm 1.8 There's quite a bit of noise in this one (did reduce in PP) as I was trying to use available late afternoon light so had to bump the ISO on my Rebel xti to 800.

I love this one Myra. As you know I'm a rookie too, but the only thing I might want to do is tone down the bright spot on the nose a little. I hope others with more experience will comment, but I think it is a unique and creative shot. The light in the eye is great.

Wendy

[Dave Humphries]

I hope others with more experience will comment, but I think it is a unique and creative shot. The light in the eye is great.

OK, I'm here!

Hi Myra,

I was quite taken by the first shot of Kitty; a nice tight composition with good focus and exposure, a 'well above average' picture. The only minor tweak I would have done if mine is to clone out or dull down the bright blurred thing in top left corner.

Then you posted Ginny, now that is an inspired composition and treatment; very low key.
I have three suggestions to improve it;
a slight dull down of nose as Wendy suggests (she is better than she gives herself credit for)
clone out the patches in front of the nose in bottom right corner
crop 10% of picture width off the left hand side

Plus maybe, and I'm really not sure about this (I'd try it and undo if it didn't work), a slight sharpen

Hope that helps,