An Eye Just for Jiminy

[RussHeath]

JC recently commented that he might not be too thrilled with a picture of my cat, George, where his eyes were closed. I couldn't agree with the sentiment more -- the eyes are where it's at. Here are two more pics of my cat with a clear subject in mind.




I would love to know tips for reducing the reflection of the window (you can tell he was staring at mini-blinds), and for cloning out the bright spot at the corner of his eye. I've tried my hand at the clone stamp, but can't make it look quite right.



This is an older shot (actually taken with a point and shoot in macro mode). I love his expression, but I have the same issue with the widow reflection.

As always, comments, critiques, edits, and re-posts are welcome.

[jiminyClickit]

newbie,

There is a Pet section in Assignments with some good examples of a balanced cat look. All-eye is no better than no eyes. Second shot is really nice (like Nature films of big cats stalking). My cloning tool will copy any place I put it, so I get the eye to fill the monitor, then just copy the parts necessary to cover the reflection. Small brush + big zoom + time = no reflection.

[RussHeath]

As always, thank you. Perhaps the "all eye" shot would work better in the macro section? I'll work with the cloning tool and see if I can clean up the reflection on the second shot a bit, and next time I post I'll try to find something besides a pet.

[texotic]

wow i really like the first pictures, like jiminyclickit said you should use the clone tool plus a big 1600 zoom and then after that you can probably use a little of the healing tool so it can even out the color and it wont look all chunky with clone tool

[snapdragon]

I love the second photo , and find it strange that you would want to git rid of the reflection in the cat's eye , it may not be the best choice of a reflection but I like to see a reflection in the eye ,and have heard it said What a sin there was no reflection in the eyes . I think you captured what was there ,and that is great . (a mouse would have been awsome ), I can't believe you cat sat still for that shot .

[RussHeath]

Originally Posted by texotic

wow i really like the first pictures, like jiminyclickit said you should use the clone tool plus a big 1600 zoom and then after that you can probably use a little of the healing tool so it can even out the color and it wont look all chunky with clone tool

I'll try with the spot healing brush after I clone. The issue is that the detail of his Iris is so complex on the other side of his pupil, that when I eliminate reflection from one side I can't make the complex pattern match correctly. Here's a quick try so you can see what I mean (see attached).

[RussHeath]

Originally Posted by snapdragon

I love the second photo , and find it strange that you would want to git rid of the reflection in the cat's eye , it may not be the best choice of a reflection but I like to see a reflection in the eye ,and have heard it said What a sin there was no reflection in the eyes . I think you captured what was there ,and that is great . (a mouse would have been awsome ), I can't believe you cat sat still for that shot .

I hadn't thought of it that way. Maybe I'll try to change the details of the reflection rather than eliminating it? Perhaps it would be a good project for one of the "how would you fix it?" forums.

My trick to get the cat to hold still is this: Most of our mini-blinds are usually drawn so he can't see through them, because he has a destructive habit of leaping into the blinds and breaking them if he sees a bird or squirel just outside. I realized a while back that if I crack the blinds for him for a few minutes, it's something he doesn't usually get to see so I have a captive audience. For the second photo I actually held the camera less than an inch from his face and took several shots before he got annoyed with me.

Thanks for the comment!