Looking for tips to make this cat photo better

[mai_lin]

I'm entering this photo of my cat, Misty, in a contest for my local camera club.

I've adjusted the white balance to more correctly reflect her coloring but something doesn't seem right - it doesn't 'pop' enough for me.

Any tips on making it better?

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3190/2931439233_a07336a33c.jpg?v=0


Thanks in advance!


Jen D.

[Pekka]

It seems to have a "veil" over it. S-shaped curve might help there. Also, it has low saturation, but adding contrast will boost that.

Here I did conversion to 16 bits, a bottom heavy S-curve and then color balance (highlights +12 to blue side to get color back closer to original) and conversion to 8 bits:

311723

curve:
311724

[mai_lin]

Pekka,

Thanks so much for this help! I love how the contrast change was able to bring out the blue in her eyes - that was the pop I was looking for.

Would the bit conversion generally degrade the 'digital quality' of the file?



Jen D.

[rushnp774]

Wow Pekka, that change made the pic look amazing. I just got Photoshop and am completely baffled by it so far.

To Jen, my photo editing experience is very limited, but I bump the contrast and saturation up just slightly in almost all of my pictures. Here's an example of what a bit of playing (in Windows Photo Editor) did to my cat:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2242/2539726138_4ecc69913b.jpg

Other than that, I don't have much helpful advice. Sorry, I'm learning just like you.

[Pekka]

Pekka,

Thanks so much for this help! I love how the contrast change was able to bring out the blue in her eyes - that was the pop I was looking for.

Would the bit conversion generally degrade the 'digital quality' of the file?

I converted the photo into 16 bits to avoid posterizing after editing. Usually is is wise to keep photos at 16 bit mode when doing heavy curve editing, it's matter of 255 levels per channel vs. 65.5 thousand.

[mai_lin]

Ok, I think I've settled on this one. Do you think it has enough impact now?

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3021/2932390415_520abdae0e.jpg?v=0

[mai_lin]

I converted the photo into 16 bits to avoid posterizing after editing. Usually is is wise to keep photos at 16 bit mode when doing heavy curve editing, it's matter of 255 levels per channel vs. 65.5 thousand.

That would be why my curve edit looked so bad compared to yours! :lol: Learn something new every day!

Thank you for the help!


Jen D.

[rushnp774]

Ok, I think I've settled on this one. Do you think it has enough impact now?


WOW, that's an unbelievable improvement from before. Two thumbs up to both of you. Do either of you know of a good tutorial that explains about editing the color curves of an image?

[Sam_T]

Ok, I think I've settled on this one. Do you think it has enough impact now?

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3021/2932390415_520abdae0e.jpg?v=0
I think it does. Good luck with it!

[mai_lin]

WOW, that's an unbelievable improvement from before. Two thumbs up to both of you. Do either of you know of a good tutorial that explains about editing the color curves of an image?

Thanks for the criticism everyone - I hope she does well in the contest, she's a pretty cat.

I'm one year into photography now and I've really jumped up quite a bit in the quality of my shots and post processing - but to tell you the truth, 90% of my post processing success has come from ideas in this forum (like Pekka's great advice) and just playing on my own. Playing in PS on my own has been the best way to learn, really.

One of these days I'd like to get a PS book, but for now playing around is working for me :cool:

Good luck!


Jen D.

[Bill Boehme]

Ok, I think I've settled on this one. Do you think it has enough impact now?

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3021/2932390415_520abdae0e.jpg?v=0

Your last edit looks very good, but it seems to me that the white balance is slightly biased towards magenta. One thought about the flatness of the original image is that its color profile may have been AdobeRGB and if it was not converted to sRGB before saving for the web, the image will appear to be washed out.

Here is an edit in which the white balance is closer to the first image.

312603

[heb112]

Oooh, can I play too? What would you guys do with this one?

[Bill Boehme]

What would you guys do with this one?

I would jump start it's purr motor by scratching behind its ears and tickling its tummy.

[Hinson]

I'm entering this photo of my cat, Misty, in a contest for my local camera club.

I've adjusted the white balance to more correctly reflect her coloring but something doesn't seem right - it doesn't 'pop' enough for me.

Any tips on making it better?

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3190/2931439233_a07336a33c.jpg?v=0


Thanks in advance!


Jen D.

I would crop it closer and give it a bit of a kick with a contrast boost and then correct the color to match the cat's true color. I can't see the cat so can only guess at the color.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3088/3165415096_2763f93a32_o.jpg

[Bareen31]

http://a0.vox.com/6a00e39898b3ed000401098119f988000c-500pi (http://hijra-madina.vox.com/library/photo/6a00e39898b3ed000401098119f988000c.html)

My very first shot using S10 SI. Would appreciate any suggestion to make it look better?

[Hinson]

My very first shot using S10 SI. Would appreciate any suggestion to make it look better?

Here's a rough edit I did this morning while finishing my coffee.
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1024/3170924380_7285b9a997_o.jpg

[Hinson]

Oooh, can I play too? What would you guys do with this one?

That's a hard one but I think I would do something like this:

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1093/3170120265_6d68be9140_o.jpg

[Lotus Man]

Here's a rough edit I did this morning while finishing my coffee.
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1024/3170924380_7285b9a997_o.jpg

I'm getting a little bit of clipping on the left leg of the cat on the right. I wouldn't lift the white point quite so much.

[SaraEmily]

http://a0.vox.com/6a00e39898b3ed000401098119f988000c-500pi (http://hijra-madina.vox.com/library/photo/6a00e39898b3ed000401098119f988000c.html)

My very first shot using S10 SI. Would appreciate any suggestion to make it look better?

Well, it was hard to work with as the original is quite noisy... but here's my contribution. Hope it's ok. :)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v40/TornAndBruised/Siamese.jpg

[SaraEmily]

Here's a rough edit I did this morning while finishing my coffee.
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1024/3170924380_7285b9a997_o.jpg

Wow, mine sucks compared to these other ones. :( How'd you do the background change?