Experiments with Max

Well of course you KNEW I'd have to figure out this indoor shooting dilemma and how to get a good photo without the flash. The main problem is when the flash hits the subject, it 1) gives the pet "demon eyes" and 2) changes the color/hue of the fur. I learned I needed to somehow bounce the flash off the ceiling, rather than have it bounce off the animal. The problem is our camera as a built in, pop up flash, which only points in one direction - right at the subject.

So using Max as my model, and a piece of white cardboard, I came up with a solution. I took this small piece of cardboard and positioned it under the flash and by slightly moving it up or down while taking several photos, I finally got this shot of Max. His coat looks natural, and his eyes aren't glowing. The whole photo was not as bright, however, so I had to do some further editing.


On this round of editing, I adjusted brightness and contrast, and I also took out that little section of my ugly blue/green carpet that was in the upper right corner of the original photo.

By now, I'm liking this much better, except for one thing...the rug Max is laying on is almost the same colors as his fur. So I needed to do something about that.

On the third photo, you can see I took out the color on the rug, and using the burn tool on my software, I enhanced the rug markings a bit more. I think this is the look I was after...a good look at Max, his color, and his expression, with him being the focus and not blending in with that rug!


Then I decided to take Max outside and work on some motion shots. As you can see from this final photo, Max soon got a bit irritated with all this picture-taking. All he wanted to do was play, and here I was with that blasted camera in between him and I. So he was kind enough to share his displeasure with me. :)


InJoy,
Jai