Pet Portraits

Trying to take pictures of our pets can be a nightmare especially if they are lively and refuse to pose nicely!. This image was very much a grab shot whilst our friend struggled to hold their Siamese cat, Kiki. However, with a little bit of thought and using Photoshop we can transform an image we may well have otherwise deleted.

First we need to remove the background distractions. Don't be afraid to crop in tight on your pet. Calling up the cropping tool from the tool box (shortcut C) select the area of the image we want to crop using the grab handles on the framework to make the adjustments. When we have selected an area double click inside the frame or press the Enter key to crop.

As the eyes are so important in any portrait and as this cat has such striking eyes we need to bring out the best in them. Duplicate the background layer by dragging it over the 'Create a New Layer' icon on the Layers palette. We can rename our layer by right mouse clicking on the new layer and selecting 'rename layer'. In the Layers Properties box we can enter a name of our choice - in this case 'eyes'.

Now let's add some colour to our cat's eyes. First choose the Lasso from the tool box making sure we have the 'add to selection' selected and feather set at 2px in the options bar. We can now start to draw a selection around both the eyes.

If you are using Photoshop 5 holding down the shift key will allow you to add to your selection.

From the Enhance menu (image>adjust in PS5-6) select Colour > Hue/Saturation and from the Edit drop down menu on the Hue/Saturation palette, select Blue. We can now move the Saturation slider to around + 50 which will make the eyes really stand out.

Duplicate the background layer as before and drag it over the top of our 'eyes' layer. This layer can be renamed 'effects'. From the Filter menu select Artistic > Dry Brush. The Brush size of 2 and Brush detail of 8 was applied in this case, but try experimenting with these values.

Any loose fur or tidying up can be done using the Clone tool, when cloning fur or hair try cloning in the direction of the natural growth.

To reveal the eyes we have enhanced, on the 'eyes' layer click on the Eraser tool on the tool box, and with a small soft edge brush selected begin removing the effects layer revealing the eyes below.

A vignette would look ideal for this image. Click on the Create New layer icon on the layers palette to create a new empty layer.

From the tool box select the Rectangular Marquee Tool, short cut M. Drag it over our image just inside the border.

Inverse our selection choosing Select > Inverse or short cut Shift Ctrl I, and from the menu bar choose Select > Feather setting the radius to around 15. This value may vary depending on the file size so try experimenting. We now have two lines of marching ants around our image. Set our foreground colour to White in the Tool box and call up the Paint Bucket. Click inside the line of marching ants with the Paint Bucket and this will fill the area with white. Press Ctrl D to remove the marching ants.

Click to enlarge

Our finished image