Photo Effects

Photo Preparation & Presentation

I believe the single most important aspect of any cattery design is the presentation of the photos of your cat. Too often I see photos on cattery websites that make me cringe - they are too small, out of focus, poorly cropped or an "off" color.

I will prepare your cat's photos to present them at their very best. I can correct the color, lighten or darken, remove distracting elements such as stray whiskers, correct red eye, and remove or soften backgrounds to allow the beauty of your cat's photo to come alive.

I frequently see photos on cattery websites that obviously look like something has been altered on them. I think that any changes to a photo should be subtle - that the actual cat in a photo should never LOOK like something has been done to it.

Grooming issues such as removing distracting hairs or minimizing staining are changes I willing make to a photo. I will not make changes to a photo that misrepresent what the cat actually looks like - including such things as improving eye color, making eyes smaller, etc.

Example 1 Correcting Exposure This candid photo was far too dark to be of any real use in promoting this beautiful kitten.
The exposure was corrected and the contrast was increased to reveal an adorable photo of the kitten for sale.
Example 2 Correcting Contrast This is a beautiful photo of a stunning Egyptian Mau as it appeared on old website I was asked to re-design. The photo is a bit dull in tone and doesn't really represent the cat's true colors.
The photo was sharpened and the color and contrast was corrected to better represent the cat's beautiful pattern. The plain background was replaced with a taupe texture and Egyptian hieroglyphics were added that matched the new website design.
Example 3 Improving Sharpness This is the actual image that was used on a website that I was asked to re-design completely. The image was too small, the color was dull, it was unsharp and the framing and cropping did nothing to compliment the cat.
Shown slightly smaller than on the actual website, the photo was re-scanned, brightened, warmed up and the cat's call name was added to balance the empty area on the background. A subtle drop shadow replaced the former frame to make the entire photo seem to "float" off the page.
Example 4 Proper Cropping This is an image from another website I was asked to re-design. The cropping is so tight that the cat appears crowded within the frame. While the frame is beautiful, it is too strong for the image - you notice the frame first, not the cat.
By allowing a looser crop, and simplifying the frame, the beauty of the cat is allowed to take center stage. More details in the face were recaptured by adjusting the contrast and color. This image is shown smaller than it appears on the actual website.
Example 5 Removing Distracting Hairs This is the original scan of the photo used on the website's homepage. The photo is slightly out of focus and has several marks on the background. The whiskers of the cat are very distracting.
The photograph was sharpened and the distracting whiskers were removed. The background was cleaned up, the color corrected and the photo sharpened.
Example 6 Removing the Background Who can resist this adorable kitten photo? But the background was distracting.
The far background was removed while still retaining details of each hair. The image was then used in the title of the kitten page for the website.
Example 7 Removing the Background (2) This small photo was all we had to work with to create a head shot of this champion Shetland Sheepdog.
Be removing and softening the background, an artistic rendition of the dog's beautiful head was achieved.
Example 8 Modifying The Image This photo was so small and dark that I couldn't recover enough details to improve the image enough to actually use. Yet I loved the expression of the cat.
The photo was lightened and sharpened and an artistic brush stroke effect added to create a painting-like portrait of the cat. The final image was perfect for use as a stunning image on a splash page.