Los Angeles & California Stock Photography

Thursday, July 7, 2011

Maine Coon Cat iphone portrait

Maine Coon Cat, "M on Forehead" Grey, Fur coming out of very pointy ears, domestic house pet, posing for portrait.

This was taken as Freddie jumped up in a very playful mood looking a little mischievous and ready to play. There was no time to grab a camera and having an iphone nearby an exposure was made. I really liked the pose however it was flawed in many ways.

There was a yellow tungsten lighting effect caused by the iphone being set for a daylight type exposure. Without getting too technical we should try briefly to explain "color temperature:" The higher the color temperature, the bluer the light. The lower the color temperature, the more yellow to red the light.  Tungsten incandescent, light bulb temperature, 1800-2600°K



The image was converted to Black and white (below) now It looks a little better after the yellow cast was removed but still left room for improvement. Converting it to B/W gave it a daylight effect, for practical purposes to have a color temperature of 5000 degrees Kelvin (5000°K) or your default setting on your digital camera, balanced for ±5000°K.

Using software PS3, I was able to add contrast to the scene and texture to the surrounding area putting a little more detail in the foreground and drawing more interest to the subject. A ragged border added adds more interest.


Turning the image to black and white again put interest back on Freddie. Which technique do you think works best?

©2011 David Zanzinger, all rights reserved. Federal copyright law prohibits unauthorized reproduction by any means and imposes fines for violation. Call 310-980-5156 for assignments, licensing and more information. Thank you very much. david@zanzinger.com