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Photoshop exercise

Rachel Foster

New member
A friend recently lost his cat and I offered to try to fix his last photo of the cat. However, it's become a bit of a challenge. What would be the best way to correct the eye color on this photo?

eyesup.jpg


Snowflake​
 

Cem_Usakligil

Well-known member
A friend recently lost his cat and I offered to try to fix his last photo of the cat. However, it's become a bit of a challenge. What would be the best way to correct the eye color on this photo?
Do you know the real color of the eyes? If so, you can select the eyes and then either do a hue/saturation change or simply replace the color with something else. The picture would also benefit from an exposure correction, denoising and sharpening.

Cheers,
 

Rachel Foster

New member
I assume they were green. I tried the selection/replacing but it looked ghastly. I wondered if there was some trick. I also am contemplating putting him on a different background.
 

John Angulat

pro member
Hi Rachel,
So sad to lose a beloved pet (I just went through that myself).
You mentioned this was the last image. Does your friend have any other images that you might see the real color?
Beyond that, once you know the general color do some stock photo searching.
There's tons of cat images out there. Copy the eyes and clone them to your image on a different layer. That way you can tweak size, etc.
 

Cem_Usakligil

Well-known member
Hi Rachel,

I wanted to give this a go to see whether it was doable. This is what I've got. I have transplanted eyes from another cat shot of mine, added the missing paw and extracted the cat. Sorry for the horrible bg color, it is just there temporarily for demo purposes. You can choose whatever the bg you want of course. I will send you the large tif file with layers (which also contains a mask for the cat extraction) per pm.

eyesup_cu.jpg


Cheers,
 

Ken Tanaka

pro member
I know that you're trying to offer heartfelt help to a friend who may be in some grief with the loss of his cat.

But as a long-time cat owner myself, may I offer a bit of advice as you wade into tinkering with this snapshot. Approach it like the cop characters in the film "Chinatown"; do as little as possible.

To hell with the retinal reflection. The real memento gold here lies in the surroundings and background (sorry Luiz and Cem). I suggest devoting your efforts more toward restoring those toys (the balls) and the general background to create a more even scene, rather than dink with the cat's eyes. Memories of the cat playing with those toys may be very strong elements of the image.
 

Cem_Usakligil

Well-known member
...To hell with the retinal reflection. The real memento gold here lies in the surroundings and background (sorry Luiz and Cem). ...
Hi Ken,

No need to apologize, as a cat owner myself I actually agree with you. The only reason I have done the exercise of extracting the cat is because Rachel wanted to try that option and I just wanted to help her by checking the feasibility of it. Personally, I have done a few extraction jobs in the past and the end results to me have always been emotionally unsatisfactory (although technically being perfect). So perhaps there is a lesson to be learnt from this experience after all.

Cheers,
 

Rachel Foster

New member
I thought the image wonderful when I saw it, but my friend was bothered by the eye coloration. I think I'll present him with prints of both the original and the "doctored" shot.

Thanks, everyone. I, too, am a cat lover.
 

Leonardo Boher

pro member
I have had several animals in my life and right now having 6 dogs and 6 cats so I can tell you where is your cat and why due my experience. Cats usually escape when something changes in the owners house or when comes visits that the cat dislike such a person who the cat hates. Cats never go far than a block, so the cat is on the roofs of your block. I have had a cat which was lost for about 6 months, and appeared after that period of time. More than lost, mine was bothered with me.
 

David Thomasson

New member
My approach would be to replace the eyes and keep the original floor (carpet). I copied and pasted a
piece from the right, flipped it horizontally, and moved it to the left to cover the clutter. Then added a
gradient to cover the rest of the background. Masking is the key here, and that isn't simple in this case.
The image is noisy and out of focus, so it's fairly difficult to work with.

cat2a.jpg
 
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