Relaxed Cat

[mappleby]

I took this shot some time ago but I have always liked it... but there is always room for improvement... Any suggestions?

[clockdoc]

Great shot! Beautiful color, lighting and sharpness. I keep wanting to look at the red flowers as well but the cat draws my attention back. My only suggestion would be a tighter crop. Thanks for sharing this with us.

[epeyton@tampabay.rr.com]

Great shot makes me want to take a nap. The bottom of the deck is a little distracting.

[pma]

Tighter crop on the cat. The background is distracting as it fights for attention against the cat.

[mappleby]

Ok I did some cropping is this what you were thinking... I tried to cut out the deck and keep the cat's eye as close to the lower right third that I could... I did not touch the saturation or the contrast level or any levels for that matter just the crop...

What do you think?

[clockdoc]

I liked it before but like it much more with the tighter cropping. Thanks for going to the trouble of recropping and reposting. Great shot!

[PLouie]

I think it is safe to assume the main subject and focus of the image is the cat. That being said I would suggest you use a wider aperture which would blur the background and give more attention of the cat. A tighter crop is also very recommended as others have said. I think it would actually been better to get closer to the cat yourself by walking over to it if it was possible.

All we really need visually to understand that the cat is relaxing is to see the head and at least one of its front legs. We will know the cat is lying down based on that alone because of the position of the front legs and the head. All that while getting close enough to see the face will make a more emotional and feelful image. It could also bring out personality. We know how powerful portraits of people can be. Think of this as a portrait of a cat.

Here are some shots I took of my cat. Maybe it'll give you a better understanding of what I was trying to say.

http://fc02.deviantart.com/fs17/f/20..._by_PLouie.jpg
http://fc02.deviantart.com/fs17/i/20..._by_PLouie.jpg

[thekevinmonster]

I definitely like the crop better. I do agree that you might want to try a smaller aperture for shallower depth of field, and you also may want to try to move in closer with that kind of shot. That increases the relative distance between you and the cat, and the cat and everything else.

Then again, we all know what happens when you point a camera at a cat.

[mappleby]

I agree... looking back now I would have like to have used a larger apperature as to blur the back ground...

Thanks for all the great comments everyone!! I really appreciate all the feed back.

Malcolm