Sebastian

Sebastian is my daughter's cat. Is this a good picture? How could I improve it? Did I crop it right? I originally cropped it tighter, but then changed my mind.

I think your crop works well, giving Sebastian some room on the right for his gaze. His nose is a bit dark, but some detail still can be found. Your DOF may be a bit too shallow, as the foreground blur is a little distracting. Nice work. :-)

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Originally Posted by Charles Hess

I think your crop works well, giving Sebastian some room on the right for his gaze. His nose is a bit dark, but some detail still can be found. Your DOF may be a bit too shallow, as the foreground blur is a little distracting. Nice work. :-)

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I'll work on the nose, but I can't do anything about the blur.

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Originally Posted by Photo Dad

Sebastian is my daughter's cat. Is this a good picture? How could I improve it? Did I crop it right? I originally cropped it tighter, but then changed my mind.

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I think more room to gaze would strengthen this image as would more selective focus(DOF), but yes it's a image worth keeping none the less.

what gear was this?

I agree, more room to look into would work to make the image feel less crowded. I pretty much agree with everything said, I just wanted to post because it's my name. :D

I with everything said already and I think it's a very nice image. I would personally crop out the foreground blur on the ground to eliminate this distracting element. I like the lighting and you really captured the eyes well!
Mel

Hey Dad-
I know we already talked about this one, but I thought it might be useful to post my thoughts publicly. Plus, I've been thinking about this one some more.

The first thing I noticed was that Sebastian's head is too centered. I'm stuck on the Rule of Thirds. So I'd crop a bit off the top and come in a little from the left to keep the same proportions. I think that would make the composition more dynamic. Right now I find my attention gets drawn into the dark part of Saebastian's face and I sort of get stuck there. If we move his face up, the eye will travel down after looking at his face.

I hadn't thought about it until I read Charles' post, but I do think the out-of-focus area in front of the cat is a little distracting. I know you can't fix it now. But in the future you could try to envision how that out-of-focus area is going to appear and adjust accordingly. I think I would have taken it exactly the same way you did. But I'd like to think more about the out-of-focus areas of my photo and place them more precisely.

Last, but not least - I know there's more detail to be had from his face. It's just a matter of setting up the scan a little better. I know you're just starting to play with Photoshop. I'd like to see some real black, and more detail in the dark area of his face. Specifically, I wish the back whiskers popped out a little more.

I do like this one. And I like Sebastian. He's been around for a long time and he's a nice kitty. I think this photo does him justice :-)

Hi PhotoDad,
Glad to see you've made the big move - from the old to the new!

I agree with what everyone else said. The only thing I would say is that I'd like to see Sebastian (the kitty) at a different perspective - just a little further back. He looks like a Siamese? One of our clients in our home used to have a similar-color cat, but wasn't a siamese.

We just got a new kitty here about 2 months ago. She is SOOOOOO cute! But very independent. She is affectionate, but only when she wants to be, and she eats everything that doesn't eat her first!

It would be nice to see more of Sebastian.....do you have any more pets?

Liz

Only thing I can add to what everyone else has said...make sure the hair and make-up stylist takes care of the eye boogers.

Even cats are sensitive to having eye crusties on film--it's demoralizing:D ...beautiful kitty and a great name...more photo shoots are in order...

natalie

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Originally Posted by Photo Dad

Sebastian is my daughter's cat. Is this a good picture? How could I improve it? Did I crop it right? I originally cropped it tighter, but then changed my mind.

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This is a fantastic shot of a handsome cat.

After reading the othe posts and most everyone commenting about the OOF area in the foreground I was wondering why you couldn't just crop it off? I read PJ's reply and he suggested taking some off the top and L, I say take it off the bottom and L side instead and leave the top alone.

Just my thoughts. 8)

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Originally Posted by Photo-John

Hey Dad-
I know we already talked about this one, but I thought it might be useful to post my thoughts publicly. Plus, I've been thinking about this one some more.

The first thing I noticed was that Sebastian's head is too centered. I'm stuck on the Rule of Thirds. So I'd crop a bit off the top and come in a little from the left to keep the same proportions. I think that would make the composition more dynamic. Right now I find my attention gets drawn into the dark part of Saebastian's face and I sort of get stuck there. If we move his face up, the eye will travel down after looking at his face.

I hadn't thought about it until I read Charles' post, but I do think the out-of-focus area in front of the cat is a little distracting. I know you can't fix it now. But in the future you could try to envision how that out-of-focus area is going to appear and adjust accordingly. I think I would have taken it exactly the same way you did. But I'd like to think more about the out-of-focus areas of my photo and place them more precisely.

Last, but not least - I know there's more detail to be had from his face. It's just a matter of setting up the scan a little better. I know you're just starting to play with Photoshop. I'd like to see some real black, and more detail in the dark area of his face. Specifically, I wish the back whiskers popped out a little more.

I do like this one. And I like Sebastian. He's been around for a long time and he's a nice kitty. I think this photo does him justice :-)

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I hope your dad doesn't mind, but I know you know I am trying to develop my photoshop skills to help me to improve my photography and also to maybe get some work, you never know. I played around with the image, croped the top and bottom and did some selective shadow adjustment using layers and then flattened the image. I think the original image may have been in Adobe RGB mode (I might be wrong), I changed that to sRGB and am posting it here again, just for comments only. Not trying to tell others what is right or wrong, but trying to get a feel for what you have said and see if I can get the message right in my continually growing older brain.

Hope it works.