A very modely snapshot of my kitty cat, Luna. A bit about her: I found her 5 years ago in my grandma's backyard along with her two brothers. We had seen feral adult cats in her yard for a couple of months, and then one day there were three little fluffy ones. They were really small (probably 3 weeks at the time) but were already eating the dry food we left out. I really wanted to help them, so I caught them after about an hour of chasing, (she was the hardest to catch) then put them under a hamper. From there I snuck all three of them into my mom's house (she wasn't pleased) and raised them until they were old enough to give away. However, my mom said I could keep one, but it had to be a girl...and wouldn't you know it, there was only 1 girl! So I kept her and named her Luna Azul, which in spanish means "Blue Moon".
I took quite a few shots of her while she was trying to take a nap and actually came away with about 5 good shots. This is my second favorite, only because it looks too soft to me and I'm afraid voters will ding it for that. However, I think this will go over better than my first choice because this is actually a 'portrait'.
Selective color was done within the camera, rotated, cropped, saturated the color more, added soft glow effect, brought down brightness, brought up the contrast, and dodged and burned eyes and fur quite a bit. I love her eyes, so hopefully others will too.
:::After Challenge:::
Wow...I really didn't think this would do that well...wow.
I thought "maybe I'll get to a 5.8, but I doubt it." And now it's my second highest-rated pic, huh.
So, needless to say, I'm very happy about how this did. The hardest part was having the light on both of her eyes because the light was coming from a window on th right side of the image. The problem with using a window for light while using "color accent" in the camera was the fact that the light coming from the window was also blue. Thus, the right side is slightly tinted blue...which I'm suprised more people didn't pick up on. Also, even though after lessening the glow effect, it still looked too soft to me on her face. But-when I backed up 3 feet from the moniter, instead of my usual 1 foot distance, it looked significantly sharper. So hopefully most of the voters didn't sit too close to their monitors like me. Too bad this didn't get in the top 10, but trust me, I'm not complaining.
Thanks to everyone who gave such high scores as well as for all of the comments!
And yes, her eyes really are that awesome :)
Statistics
Place: 20 out of 378 Avg (all users): 6.6255 Avg (commenters): 8.0370 Avg (participants): 6.2555 Avg (non-participants): 7.0154 Views since voting: 3614 Views during voting: 531 Votes: 267 Comments: 45 Favorites: 16 (view)
Omg this has got to be the most beautiful cat ever! and Luna is the most perfect name for her :o) I was just skimming through the gallery and happen to come across this. Fantastic portrait! Brought me to tears because she reminds me of my kitty that I had to give away a couple years back. Give her a big hug for me!
Incredibly cool shot. I think it deserved a top 10 finish...I love it! and I have both dogs and a cat as pets....well actually 2 wolf crosses and a cat, lol. I love the soft focus look...very nice!!!9
I don't get it?! No offence but I really don't get it, I voted a 2 on this, since it's not sharp, it's oddly cropped, weak in contrast and the black and white cat head got this cheap grey tone. It's not beautiful to me, nothing but annoying.
I hope you don't take it personaly but I really don't get it. Thanks to your top 20 anyway.
This was one of my favs of challenge. It's an example of selective desat really working. You have a very strong composition going with the two eyes and nose forming a triange that draws viewer's eyes to center. Very strong photo. Congrats!
This is BEAUTIFUL!!! I love this soft dreamy form of processing too! Fantastic job! And congratulations on such an incredible finish in this amazing challenge!
Very nice! Your processing is well done. With any luck at all you wont get those grinch voters that despise Selective Desaturation. And if so I'll make up for some of em. 9
Excellent presentation with a very courageous crop that works wonderfully. Almost has a gflamour feel to it. A touch of noise at the bottom but no big deal really. Well done!
4 - Good potential, think I understand the concept, not sure you've achieved it though. Seems to be blur issues, but could be intentional. Bigger (640 height) make this better in my opinion - if the quality was there.
"That face, that face, that cover girl face." This photo could easily be on the cover of a cat/pet magazine that you see sold at Petsmart stores. Wow, just look at those gorgious blue eyes! They really draw the viewer in. The little touch of soft focus adds to the dreamy look especially since the attention is arrested by those baby blues.
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