Ziglet models a yellow hat cuz we made him do it

[Marko]

This is my antisocial and picture hating cat Ziglet.
I'd be curious to know what people think of this one on any level but particularly the colour contrast on your monitors.

many thx!
Marko

[Ben H]

I think forcing cats to look stupid is rather cruel... They are far to superior to be mocked... ;)

He has amazing eyes... The yellow is a little overblown here but that's because my monitors are fairly light (Mac's have a gamma of 1.8 in general so appear lighter than Windows PC's in general).

But looks good here. Does he look a little like you... ?

[tirediron]

I agree; the yellow is just a bit bright, esp. on the ties under the chin. The hue/saturation looks bang on on my colour-corrected Windoze system, but I have to say, I think you missed it on the eyes. The catchlights are over-strong and are blocking out the pupils, leaving him looking, to me, like he's got glass eyes.

[Gem]

Okay, the scarf for me is more of a peachy colour :confused:... Agree with TI about the eyes.

[kat]

I agree; the yellow is just a bit bright, esp. on the ties under the chin. The hue/saturation looks bang on on my colour-corrected Windoze system, but I have to say, I think you missed it on the eyes. The catchlights are over-strong and are blocking out the pupils, leaving him looking, to me, like he's got glass eyes.


That's exactly what I see. Umm..never did a caliber on the screen yet though.

How long did the cat wear it for? LOL..I can't even get my kids to wear a hat for over 30 seconds!!!

[Marko]

Thanks everyone, I'm having a bit of recent trouble shooting his eyes because they are starting to get cloudy,(He's 16) you might be right that I was slightly off though. I'll have to check the original raw file.


I think forcing cats to look stupid is rather cruel... They are far to superior to be mocked...Oh I disagree big time with that one. Forcing them to wear a silly hat is the least that bum could do to pay us back.:p

Superior eh....hmm not so sure. He IS a superior sleeper tho.

[kiley9806]

lol - this is cute! the beautiful blue eyes sure stand out to me, although i agree with TI that the pupils being missing are a bit of a distraction... the yellow looks yellow, no peach on my screen- a bit over blown though. and the white rug he is sitting on doesnt look too white - do i see some smudging on the lefthand side?

[JAS_Photo]

I agree with Kiley. But the smudging is on the rightside. The shade of yellow is somewhere between very ripe corn and raw squash.

[Mad Aussie]

The more we tease cats the better! I'm not a cat person :)

Love the shot in general. Poor cat looks like he just wants out! The reflection in the eyes tells me this.
Love the background also ... fits purrrrfectly with the subject's colouring in this case.
For these reasons I really like the shot.

But ... (I could get accused of having a 'but' fetish if I'm not careful) :eek:

The 'yellow' cap is leaning toward 'mustard' in a light kid of way I think but I wouldn't call it 'peach' on my monitor. No pink hue there at all. I see no issues with the colour at all.

I think the yellow hat only just made it in terms of exposure and I suspect some burning was needed to keep it in check.

The rug did not make it though. I can see the smudge left from the burn attempt. It was blown out and should have been cropped. I think without it the colour feel of the photo would be lifted tenfold.

It's a shame his nose and whiskers are out of focus with that narrow DOF. I think it would have helped if it were possible to sharpen that or get a slightly deeper DOF in the first place. Big ask with a cat that didn't want to be there I know.

[kiley9806]

But the smudging is on the rightside.


whoops! my bad...

[Marko]

More good input. Thanks!

I saw the smudgeyness on the right side but got lazy and forgot how good your eyes are:)

I think some of the learning that I'm taking away from this thread, as is often the case has to do with distraction and focal point. The yellow hat is a bright yellow and so it was rendered bright yellow. BUT because it was so yellow, it's stealing the show as the shot is about the cuteness of the cat wearing the hat, but too much attention is going to the hat itself. Playing with lighting (for this shot window light plus reflector) can only be done once before shooting in a case like this, as there is no time to fiddle with light, while shooting a constantly fidgety cat.

Given that it is a feisty cat that was being photographed and you do the best you can with them, it would have been smarter to choose a less vibrant colour in the first place. Of course I can fix the colour in post, but who wants more work?

Thanks all!
marko