At the risk of getting shot down in flames I am going to declare that I am pretty pleased with this picture.
For me it totally captures the beauty and elegance of Moreno, and the stunning nature of the view. Our apartment block is 4 floors tall and we are on the 4th floor with a stunning view. Each morning Moreno likes to watch the marina wake up from this vantage point, and there is nothing better than to sit and have a cup of tea and watch him enjoy his life.
From an artistic perspective I think the blurring in the background works well. In terms of my own photoshop skills and ‘eye’ for a picture, I reckon I am heading in the right direction.
Sometimes I just think it is important to take a picture that captures something uniquely personally. Each morning I feel really lucky to wake up to these two views – Moreno so content with his life, and the view of Almerimar which I never get fed up with seeing.
And now, over to you to burst my bubble!
Original
Photographing Moreno is a challenge at the best of times. Not only is he active most of the time, but being black he is really hard to focus on correctly, as his coat picks up all kinds of reflections and shades.
I took about 5 or 6 pictures in order to get the one that I could work with.
If you would like a copy of this picture you can download it here
Tough subject to approach, but you did a pretty good job. On one hand you want to blur the background so you want to shoot wide open, but you lost some sharpness in the cat. Good desktop picture though, leaves some nice space on the right for files with dark colors to distract from filenames.
Certainly an improvement on last week then – thanks 🙂
I like this shot! – you seem to have caught Moreno in the right pose, I know exactly how hard it can be to get the right moment with animals (try it underwater!) but when you get it it looks great, and this is an example.
I like the blurred background aswell, sets a nice frame around Moreno.
D
🙂
@Danny: actually it would be pretty simple to capture a picture of Moreno under water, morbid and sick, but relatively easy!
@Chris – lol (however much I hate the word!) yes perhaps with moreno it would be easy, but try it with turtles: http://www.flickr.com/photos/8644886@N04/1020031294/
can you tell us what you did it in? Photoshop, Lightroom and o r Aperture???
If p/shop did you use layers, cut Moreno out and then paste him back in again???
@ Danny: that is a very cool picture
@ Darren: photoshop, nothing too complicated, straighted out the wall with ruler, cropped the picture to straighten it out, pulled the curve around a bit to get the colour that I wanted.
That’s pretty good – especially, as you point out, when that’s not a fake cat. 🙂
I just wish there was a little more detail in the texture of Moreno’s coat – but maybe that’s more down to the current calibration of my display, rather than your Photoshop processing.
Finally, I think it might be nice to wake up to that view occasionally – you are indeed lucky.
Funny but his coat shows a better texture in the ‘before’ picture in a way, but it is pretty clear on the final version as well on my 23″ ACD.