I got back from my hockey game and was compelled to tweak another photo. This time Marbles, everyone's favorite pear shaped cat, proved a willing subject. The catch this time was that the light was just too low, so I had to use the builtin flash. I typically avoid using the flash at all costs because of the harsh effect it has on the contrast and colors in a scene, but with no tripod I had no choice in this situation. Here is the result before any adjustments:
Click for a larger image. The thumbnail was resized by typepad's somewhat dubious algorithm which loses some of the detail I'm talking about here.
The flash really set the red cube on fire. Way too much saturation there. The wall and marble lost some detail too. Here it is again after some of my hamfisted tweaking:
Not too bad. I used the Shadow/Highlight tool to bring out the detail in the wall, marble, and wood, but this still left the cube glowing like a hot ember. I used the Magic Wand tool to select just the cube, and then the Hue/Saturation tool to bring down the brightness and adjust the color something much closer to non-flash reality. After cropping and resizing, I added a touch (~12%) of Unsharp Mask to bring out the texture in Marble's fur a bit.
I'm very happy with how it turned out. I think it looks fairly naturally lit. Marble's eyes, and the reflection off the turntable still give away the use of a flash, but I don't mind that so much. Let me know if you would have done it differently.
Willing?
"I do not think it means what you think it means."
I recall some stalking and odd contortions made by the photographer in order to get these shots. Part of the skill incvolved is getting her attention without disturbing her pose.
Posted by: stephanie | January 24, 2005 at 07:49 AM