sleepy kitty

[gail]

http://photos.imageevent.com/gailsgallery/gailsgalleryfirstalbum/websize/cat00005.JPG

[acurtis]

Gail

Great cat and not a bad picture of him/her either.

Andy

[Warman]

I spend most of my free time shooting my cats and I can tell you that is a great cat shot. Wish it was a little sharper but great nonetheless.

[defordphoto]

I played with your shot a bit. Just set white and black points and added a little USM. Colors might be a little over saturated, but I didn't adjust color at all.

http://racefamily.racinglines.com/MiscPhotos/cat00005a.jpg

[gail]

Thanks Jim,
That looks really good, just brings out the color and detail, of the photo so much better. Good Job, Thanks I need to learn to do that.

[defordphoto]

A three-step process for that result. Took all of 15-20 seconds. What are you using for post-processing?

[sds4kst8]

Jim, can you explain what you mean by "set white and black points" (and how do you do this?)

Thanks.

[defordphoto]

Jim, can you explain what you mean by "set white and black points" (and how do you do this?)

Thanks.

Using Photoshop 7.x I went to Image/Adjustments/Levels and clicked on the white dropper. Then I clicked on the white fir at the cat's nose. Then I clicked the black dropper and clicked at one of the dark stripes at the cat's neck until I got the right results. The black dropper took a few tries to get the right results. There's also a grey dropper there too, but I didn't do that one here.

Then I sharpened at 200/0.5/0 which is a standard I use for most of my racing shots. Hey, the cat looks like it could be fast! ;)

It's probably a little too sharp for this photo as you'll see some minor stair-stepping on the whiskers. The USM should probably be backed off to 125 or so or use an overlay method. This was quick and dirty and I spent little time on it.

[sds4kst8]

Jim, thanks for the tip. I've not used the eyedroppers like that in the levels command before, so that's what threw me off. I have a couple of actions set up...one for adjusting levels and the other for sharpening. The levels action produced what appeared to be the results as your technique. The sharpen action is set up rather extreme for some situations but it's done in a separate layer so I can adjust the opacity.

I wonder if there's an advantage to using the eyedroppers as you described versue the more "automatic" method I've tried?

Can ya tell I'm pickin' your brain here? Your photos just look so good I figure if I can learn a fraction of what you're doing it'll help me!

Thanks.

[gail]

Hi Jim, I use Adobe Photoshop 5.0 to work with my photos.
And yes indeed, you do a very good job. I like the way you made the cat come out more. My version was dull, and not very pretty lol. I will have to give that a try to sharpen my photos up a bit. Thanks for the advice.
We all got to learn somewhere and this forum, has help me more than you all no.

Thanks Bunches!! :lol: 8)

[defordphoto]

Yes, we're all here to learn. I am far from anything considered experienced in Photoshop. I have not done much in layers, but have seen the results and there's a whole 'nother world for me to learn out there.

Gail: Your photo is fine. Obviously you did not have the best lighting conditions. If the lighting isn't too far out of whack, even if you have just a lowly JPEG (I shoot alot in JPEG), you can still recover a photo and turn it into something magical. If you have that shot in RAW, then you'll have even more control of the end result.

Just like with our cameras there are many different options and techniques. I am always open to new ideas and always willing to share. Actions are fine but sometimes batching them isn't always the best idea unless your batch of photos are all similar. I usually take mine one-on-one whether I have using actions or not.

I'm becoming fond of processing most of my photos one at a time. Sure I'll use batching to do the basics, noise removal etc., but when it comes to the final results I like to deal with my photos individually.

And, of course, there are the other times where the shooting is hot and heavy and I do little or not post-processing at all!

BTW: I learned this short and simple process from a fellow ChampCar shooter and I have been very pleased with the results, to say the least.