Hi Everyone,
Thought I'd share this portrait of my cat, Lenny. Hope you like him!! :)
40D 100-400 @ 400mm
ISO 1000
AV F5.6 1/80sec
Taken outside in very low light.
Converted to B/W in elements 6, did an adjustment in levels and added a little sharpening.
Look forward to your c & c's!
Best regards to all,
Nicki
Nikki, girl, you have got to promise me that you'll keep experimenting with b&w cause you get it. Now, that being said, and keeping in mind that I am no b&w expert, here's what I would suggest to make this or a future b&w image even stronger...
See how in focus the front eye is and how out of focus the back eye is? I'd really like to see that back eye more in focus. Instead of looking at Lenny's "gaze" I'm left wondering "What's wrong with that back eye?" It's subtle and you have to really look for it - but that back eye with one more notch of aperture probably wouldn't have pulled my glance away. I see you shot in pretty limited light but you still could have made the exposure at f7 @ 1/60th and probably been okay.
Next, you've got a great range of grays here...and that's so important in b&w. What you don't have that might make this even better is a hard black background instead of a dark gray. Also, those eyes again...they could have a bit more sparkle to them by burning/dodging that pupil & iris on a 10-20% opacity. In CS3 we'd do a layer mask but you can do a dodge/burn thing in Elements and it will do the same thing.
Lastly, if this were something you could do over, I'd look to switch up the light and let the back of the image fall into darkness instead of the front. Again, my eye keeps wanting to go to the lighter areas and that's where the OOF eye is.
I'm only going into detail and getting really whiney because I think you're at the level where you want to really learn from your images and, although these are just my opinion, I think they would have strengthened the image a bit. I downloaded your image and played with it a bit in CS3. I'm not saying mine is better by any stretch of the imagination but thought it might be helpful for you to try to spot the differences between mine and yours. Maybe you'll see something you like better in the way I added a curves adjustment and pumped up that front eye's intensity a bit - or maybe not. Just thought it would be fun for you to see the image in two different ways.
Hi Jules,
Wow, I really appreciate that you took the time to give such a detailed critique because you are right, I absolutely DO want to learn and improve and I will listen to any suggestions that you can offer me.
Regarding the aperture, I don't usually shoot at F5.6, but the light really was dingy and I thought that with the 100-400 lens I just wouldn't get a sharp image if I closed down at all. I agree that the OOF eye is distracting - I almost didn't post the picture because of it!! I did dodge/burn the other eye, but agree that it could have done with some more. What I really like in your version is the black BG. Did you do this with a curves adjustment? This makes a huge difference to the picture.
I certainly will keep trying with the B/W images - such a different perspective.
Thank you so much for you help and encouragement.
Best regards,
Nicki
Can't wait to get home and introduce my girls to Lenny !!! They will be impressed !!!
Nicki look up curves tutorials It is the most powerful tool you can use in PS It is simple to target specific areas and enhance, can color balance and much more. For some reason is one of the last tools we are comfortable with but should be the other way around !!!
Hi Al,
Thank you so much for your kind words. You are right - I do not feel at all comfortable with curves - I just can't seem to get the hang of it, but I am definitely going to check out some tutorials because I have heard other people say that it is so much more powerful than levels.
BTW Lenny has asked me to tell you that your girls are bound to love him...:D;)...actually, he really is the closest thing to a large teddy bear that you could possibly want...:)
Best regards,
Nicki
PS I have another cat, actually he is black and white, and I cannot for the life of me seem to get a decent picture of him. Even when I expose correctly I can't seem to get any detail in his fur. Any suggestions greatly received - is this something that curves could help with??
Last edited by Nicki Gwynn Jones; 09-16-2008 at 10:22 AM.
Reason: Add text...
Yes, Nikki, the darker BG was created with a curves adjustment. I might try to whip up a curves tutorial but I know you can find them online. Al is right...you have to just get in there and play with curves and once you get it - wow!
As for the other cat...have you got a shadow/highlight adjustment in Elements (sorry, I can't remember.) If so, you might try underexposing him and then using that to bring back the detail. Although levels and curves can pretty much do the same work, I use levels for adjusting the depth of tones (separating them from each other) and curves to adjust the contrast (making them stand out from each other.) Once you start to think along those lines, B&W gets easier as you can usually tell if it is a contrast issue or a tonal issue.
Lenny...
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