High Key Cat - C/C please - DPChallenge Forums

Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM

01/11/2005 04:54:22 AM · #1

Is this a good example of a high-key shot?

It's my cat Tungsten in his favorite play zone - my bathtub. The ghostly line behind him is my clear shower curtain.

It was a throwaway shot until I looked at how tight the histogram was. I pushed the exposure +2.50 stops and increased the brightness to 92 in Adobe RAW. I also cut the saturation to -25%.

Should I have pushed it more? Any high-key pointers?

C/C please.

Thanks,
Ara

Edit to add the two new crops

Message edited by author 2005-01-11 21:37:29.

brianlh

Canon EOS-450D Rebel XSi

01/11/2005 05:31:27 AM · #2

looks fantastic to me, but i've never attempted anything of this sort :\ (although maybe i should try.. never knew/realized that short tonal ranges were good for high key shots)

LindaLee

Canon EOS-40D

Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM

01/11/2005 05:55:23 AM · #3

I love the shot, but don't think I would have pushed it anymore than you did. Beautiful cat, is it a lilac point?

Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM

01/11/2005 07:27:01 AM · #4

@ brianlh: thanks! i just assumed that short tonal range shots were suited to high (or low) key processing.

@ lhall: thanks! he's a platinum solid tonkinese. they don't have "points" per se, but they do have deeper color where the points would usually go.

and thanks to suemack for the nice comment she left on the photo!

LindaLee

Canon EOS-40D

01/11/2005 12:22:28 PM · #5

Thanks for the reply about him being Tonkinese, I'll have to read up on them. He is an extraordinarily beautiful animal - nice to have a built-in "model" around the house!

Sigma 100-300mm f/4.0 EX IF HSM for Nikon

01/11/2005 01:01:28 PM · #6

Ara

Very nice :)
I left a comment on your photo.

MrYu

Nikon D70

01/11/2005 03:49:44 PM · #7

Very nice, however i would either leave less of the body in the picture or all of it. cutting legs like that doesn't seem balanced in my extremely subjective opinion. Also not sure about traces of stuff in the background. I would just ps them out. Otherwise perfect.

01/11/2005 03:56:50 PM · #8

Originally posted by RHoldenSr:

Ara

Very nice :)
I left a comment on your photo.

On my monitor there appears to be a some varying tones in the white background. Did you try to use the white sampler in the level adjustment to create as much pure white as possible?

I did leave the curtain in as a "barely there" hint of texture. I didn't use the sampler, didn't even think of it. I'll def. play with it later. Thanks!

BTW, I'm a dog person too, and got this breed specifically for its dog-like personality traits. He follows me around, loves to play fetch (really) and in general, seems doggish.

01/11/2005 03:58:40 PM · #9

Originally posted by lhall:

Thanks for the reply about him being Tonkinese, I'll have to read up on them. He is an extraordinarily beautiful animal - nice to have a built-in "model" around the house!

Thanks! Yes, he's fun to shoot - I just have to remember to keep the ISO and shutter speeds high - otherwise he's just a blur. :^)

01/11/2005 04:02:21 PM · #10

Originally posted by yurasocolov:

Well, I can't put more of the body into the shot - that's the whole frame resized down with no crop. =] I wish I could have taken more shots of him right there, but he was only still for an instant, and even at 1/125 he can be pretty blurry. I didn't play around with a tighter crop, but I'll try that later when I mess with the levels control too. I think the curtain is less visible on my computers, I'll try to blot it out then as well.

01/11/2005 04:04:44 PM · #11

thanks also to riotspyne for leaving a comment on the shot! =]

Sigma 100-300mm f/4.0 EX IF HSM for Nikon

01/11/2005 09:34:09 PM · #12

Ok, here are two new tries. Both using the white picker in levels with subsequent gamma slider adjustment (to taste) after the white level was set.

Are they too washed out? Too high-key? Anyone want to take a stab at modifying the original shot?

MrYu

Nikon D70

01/11/2005 09:53:50 PM · #13

The first one is much better, imo. I would just use a slightly different crop, something closer to 3:2 or even 16:9, would add some whitespace on top and on the left, so that the eyes are not in the middle verticlaly. But that's personal preference and isn't very important. And perhaps just a touch of blur on the ears. Otherwise looks good to me.

Nikon AF-S Nikkor 28-300mm f3.5-5.6G ED VR

01/11/2005 10:51:02 PM · #14

Ara

Hope you don't mind I had a go at it in photoshop :)

I really like this crop/version you did:

Arcanist

Nikon D810

01/11/2005 10:56:39 PM · #15

Ara, I really like all three. The first one with the curtain is the best in my opinion, but the others are not far behind at all. I was wondering what the effect of reducing the pink coloration on the ears would produce in the headshots.

Nikon AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR II

01/12/2005 11:35:20 PM · #16

yurasocolov: thanks! do you have any other tips for high-key processing?

RHoldenSr: don't mind at all. =] i like it, what did you do?

Arcanist: i kind of like the curtain one the best too - but i wonder if it's because my monitor isn't calibrated properly. yeah, i usually find his ears register as way too pink. i'll try another remix with the ears less saturated.

does anyone know of any good high-key info or tutorials on the web?

Cam

Sony DSC-F717

01/12/2005 11:48:45 PM · #17

I really like all the versions.

But, this one is my fav-

dacrazyrn

Nikon D300

01/13/2005 02:11:11 AM · #18

Gave it a shot on my High Key Portrait action, then messed the layers to Soft Light and Opacity changes and a Channel mixer with Opacity changes. Boosted sat and contrast on a background copy to get color to show through more.

I have this action still on my site at //photos4aidan.com/actions/hisketch.atn
also an rtf of the steps at //photos4aidan.com/actions/hisketch.rtf
If anyone is interested.

Message edited by author 2005-01-13 02:13:08.

01/13/2005 02:11:20 AM · #19

Originally posted by Riggs:

I really like all the versions.

But, this one is my fav-

Thanks. I like RHoldenSrs version too. It looks like he masked out the background and blurred it. I think it's nicer than my second attempts because they look too washed out - I tried to make the background all white by raising (lowering?) the white point and it washed out a lot of the detail in the process.

Nikon AF-S Zoom-Nikkor 28-70mm f/2.8D IF-ED

01/13/2005 02:17:58 AM · #20

Yes I copied the layer and did a gaussian blur.
Ereased the blur on the cat and adjsuted the levels/curves.
I also used the white sampler to create the pure white background on the copied layer.

I'm glad you like it :)

Originally posted by BikeRacer:

Originally posted by Riggs:
I really like all the versions.

But, this one is my fav-

Thanks. I like RHoldenSrs version too. It looks like he masked out the background and blurred it. I think it's nicer than my second attempts because they look too washed out - I tried to make the background all white by raising (lowering?) the white point and it washed out a lot of the detail in the process.

Message edited by author 2005-01-13 02:18:31.

Gringo

Nikon D2X

01/13/2005 03:20:32 AM · #21

Originally posted by BikeRacer:

Are they too washed out? Too high-key? Anyone want to take a stab at modifying the original shot?

These all look great Ara. I think a fine keyline border will help balance out all the shots. And have you played around at all with Black/White on these? They all make great portraits. After all, this is a member of the family, isn't it?

Nikon AF-S Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G DX VR

01/13/2005 03:30:52 PM · #22

Gringo

Well done as always I like what you came up with :)

P.S. I got your email and I have not had the chance to get back to you.

Originally posted by Gringo:

Originally posted by BikeRacer:
Are they too washed out? Too high-key? Anyone want to take a stab at modifying the original shot?

These all look great Ara. I think a fine keyline border will help balance out all the shots. And have you played around at all with Black/White on these? They all make great portraits. After all, this is a member of the family, isn't it?

swagman

Nikon D200

01/13/2005 05:58:40 PM · #23

I think they're a bit too washed out. I pur it in OS, and brought up the shadows on levels slightly, and liked the result much better. Just personal taste, of course.

aerogurl

Nikon D300

01/13/2005 06:50:50 PM · #24

Even though I do like the look and I think the high key effect works great with this portrait, I do feel that the pupils are not dark enough. The images just seem really washed out, I think playing with the brightness and contrast might help a bit, but this is just my opinion. I think this one by dacrazyrn is an absolutely excellent example of how it should look...