# Italian 'eyes' kitty



## DonaldG (Aug 23, 2007)

After receiving a PM about the cat photo I posted in the June 'Friends' topic, i thought it might be worthwhile to show the progression from the camera to completed image.

Perception of a so called good image is subjective to say the least. The final is the one I prefer. 

I spotted the cat and wanted its eyes to be the sharpest point. I use exclusively centre focussing, hence the eyes in centre of the frame. It frame is under exposed because of the white fur fooled the auto exposure.

This is the full frame from the camera with no processing or cropping.










Adjusted brightness & contrast (using Photoshop curves) and tickled the colour a tiny amount. A fraction of smart sharpening. No cropping.
Result: a nice snapshot of a cat.









I was after the image that made the eyes grab your attention in an instant way and also to balance the image: 
a) made two layers, the bottom one colour and the top one black & white.
b) using masks, removed the the eyes from the top layer so that the colour shows through.
c) a small amount of image rotation counter clockwise.
d) paying attention to the rule of thirds tongue, I made the crop so that the eyes were bisecting the top 'third line' and the left 'third line'. 
Result: to my eyes, a better presentation.









I still wanted those eyes to really stand out.
a) Using the lasso tool, the eyes were selected
b) inverted selection so that everything in the image was selected except the eyes.
c) Applied a small amount of Gaussian blur to everything bar the eyes.
My preferred version:









I didn't even think of cleaning the 'sleep' from the cat's eyes...

Criticism and comments welcome.


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## WereBo (Apr 5, 2008)

Well, comments aplenty but all complimentary about how well the final photo turned out :grin:

You noted the only slight niggle, about the 'sleep' around the cat's eyes, other wise a superb tutorial ray:


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## sjb007 (Dec 10, 2007)

Nice, I like it. :grin:


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## Done_Fishin (Oct 10, 2006)

ray: Thanks Donald .. nicely explained and a wonderful pic at the end ..


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## Dori1960 (May 19, 2011)

Wonderful! Thanks for the instructions!!! ray:


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## Acuta73 (Mar 17, 2008)

If I may crit a little?

The final product is very nice and I like the blur, but seems a bit washed out.

Possible to composite the original wrought iron and the fur from the second step (via a mask) into the image prior to the blur? Would add some saturation as well as contrast. The pink nose might be nice, too?

It may not work and your image is very nice as-is, but just a thought.


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