Lilahpops

Yet another reason to try out the special effects in iPhoto

Again, Cordelia has agreed to model for this installment in the iPhoto series of Tips and Tutorials. In this article we’ll make a cartoon effect using iPhoto.

I have a lot of photos of my cats and like many hobby photographers they can be very hit and miss. Sometimes, though, the expression caught in an otherwise ordinary photo makes deserves some post-processing.

The photo

Here we have a photo of my British Shorthair, Cordelia.

You can see that it’s quite grainy and blurry at the same time, very low light conditions and not exactly result I was hoping for. But the look on her face made me want to try to improve the photo somehow. So I decided to do a little more experimenting with iPhoto. In no time at all I had a cartoon/comic type of effect.

It’s all about smoothing the grain

The Reduce Noise option is the key to a cartoon effect. It smooths out all the grain in the image and almost gives it a paintbrush texture.

To start with I opened the Adjust settings and moved the Reduce Noise slider all the way to the right. Play around with this as you mightn’t need to always set this to maximum. In fact, I decreased it a little (to 89.0) as the effect made the image so smooth it became even more blurry. However, even with the decrease the eyes are still out of focus and as any eager amateur photographer knows - the eye have it.

So instead of decreasing the smooth paint-like effect even further I increased the Sharpness (to .71). Instantly the eyes stood out and the cartoon effect was still in tact. There was also more of an outline around the cat.

A few more minor adjustments

To polish up the final image I made a few more adjustments.

Levels and Contrast and Crop for an overall improvement. Saturation to bump up the color. The change I was most impressed with, possibly because I don’t use it very often, was the effect an adjustment to the Highlights setting produced.

Here is the Adjustments window showing the final settings.

And the final result. Voila!

If you have other iPhoto tips you’d like to share let us know in the comments. If you’d like to write a guest post about using iPhoto then get in touch with me via the Contact Form.

Related posts

• How to resize an image in iPhoto
• Add special effects to your images with iPhoto
• Use the tool in iPhoto to edit your images
• Duplicate an image in iPhoto

This is my entry in the Share the Love Project

OK, it might be lame but I love my cat! In fact, I love both my cats but only one would deign to sit for a photo today.

If you follow Neil Creek’s blog you’ll know the reason for this project. If you haven’t been reading then head over and check it out.

When illness strikes at your loved ones the rest of the world (and its problems) shrinks to the size of a pea in comparison. You realise the insignificance of those petty annoyances: tele-marketers; that b@stard driver who cut in front of you; that neighbour playing loud music. Nothing matters more than those close to you.

Stress like this, however, needs a little relief and light-heartedness. I imagine Neil has picked this theme - Share the Love - for this very reason. I can only hope he and Naomi like cats!

My partner is a little camera-shy, so you’ll have to make do with Cordelia (above). She takes light-heartedness to the extreme … I mean how cool can a cat be? She is quite aloof but knows when lap-sitting is required after a long day at work.

The light was quite poor when I took this. Post-processing was only an auto levels adjustments … she really does have those golden-coloured eyes. Mesmerizing.

iPhoto editing features can make an ordinary photo extraordinary

This is the next installment in the iPhoto series.

One of my cats, Cordelia, agreed to help out with this post. Gorgeous as the subject is, the image is a bit dull; there’s not much color and the background could have been better. And, I unfortunately cut off the tip of her right ear. But she is worthy of rescuing with iPhoto!

Before I begin I’ll make a copy of the image.

Open the special effects windows

In this iPhoto edit we’ll combine a few special effects features. So, select Edit and open both the Effects and Adjust options.

Move the special effects windows to either side of the image so you can see the changes as you edit. The editing sliders in the Adjust window are all at the default settings and you should already see the special features from the thumbnails in the Effects window.

Adjust the levels to brighten the image

Adjusting the levels is always my first step when editing. Sometimes a slight levels adjustment is all a photo needs. The left-hand slider controls the darker tones and the right-hand slider controls the lighter tones while the middle slider helps to balance the brightness and shadow. Play around with the settings to see which best suits your image. I moved each slider for this image. I also slightly increased the Exposure (to 0.24) and bumped up the Contrast (to 20)

See the difference these changes have already made. The background is more washed out and Cordelia is more prominent.

But, we can do more.

A tiny retouch

In the original photo do you see the tiny blemish under Cordelia’s right eye? It looks like I took the photo before she had finished grooming. Using the Retouch tool, I moved the slider to roughly the size of the blemish and simply clicked over the spot to remove it. Much tidier.

OK, let’s adjust those settings.

Add some warmth and saturate the colors

The Temperature slider can cool down or warm up your picture. In this instance, we want a bit of warmth so I moved the slider to the right (set to 6.5). This has changed the colour of her eyes to the correct shade of gold. The picture still needs some more color so I slid the Saturation to the right (up to 61). To remove a bit of the darkness on the fur I moved the Shadow slider up (to 6.1).

Each change is small but significant.

A crop and a matte finish

Cordelia’s is looking slightly more reddish than she should be (well, she is a Chocolate British Shorthair after all, not a Reddish British Shorthair) so even though her eyes are now a more true to life colour, I added a slight Tint (to 9.8) to tone down the reddish fur and bring out more of the chocolate color.

Now to the Effects window, I selected Matte. Then a slight Crop to finish. Why the crop after the matte and not before? I did try it that way but the crop was too tight and the matte finish covered part of the cat in white. So I added the matte and then did a couple of crops to get it just right. Having said that, the matte does help disguise the fact that the tip of her right ear was clipped.

Et voila!

If you have other iPhoto tips you’d like to share let us know in the comments. If you’d like to write a guest post about using iPhoto then get in touch with me via the Contact Form.

Related posts

• How to resize an image in iPhoto
• Add special effects to your images with iPhoto
• Use the tool in iPhoto to edit your images
• Duplicate an image in iPhoto

I talked about a cat photographer called Mr Lee in a previous post and have now stumbled across a cat pianist called Nora. A truly talented feline, this piano playing cat knows her ivories. This YouTube video is the sequel to the original Nora The Piano Cat. Watching this cat play the piano is one of the most enjoyable sights I’ve seen in a while and the piano play off that Nora has with her owner/tutor is lovely. If you need a laugh then watch Nora practice the piano.

Now I want to get a piano…

I’ve mentioned before that I have two gorgeous British Shorthair cats and thought it was time I introduced them properly.

But how do you describe your pet without being overly sentimental and
biased? Impossible! So here goes:

The two best cats in the world

Cordelia

Cordelia is four years old, chocolate-coloured, beautiful, curious with exceptional supervisory skills, likes to hang out (but not a lap-sitter unless it’s winter and a blanket is on a lap), confident, finicky, manipulative (but in a good way), bed-hog, tuna-addict, leaf-chaser and box-lover.

Lilah

Lilah is three years old, black, big, loves cuddles, hates grooming, bullies Cordelia but is otherwise a coward, bonkers, plays rough but loves to kick a toy mouse around with you, vocal, can leap tall lounges in a single bound, a total food-addict and a snorer. Oh and she’s a bit quite pigeon-toed.

Lilah has starred in a previous post.

British Shorthair Breed

British Shorthairs are larger than your average cat. They have a lovely round body with short, thick legs and a large head with beautiful round cheeks and eyes. Their coat is short but very thick. They are very good-natured and, although probably not the smartest breed on the block, they make very for very companionable pets.

» See more of Cordelia and Lilah on Flickr