Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Texture Tuesday :: Happiness

{you know what to do}

I don't have any pets, but I love to take pictures of animals! This happy kitty was sitting in the sun at Camp 18, when one of my friends and I stopped there on the way to Canon Beach for my birthday last summer. 

I took several photos of this sweet kitty, one of which I posted on my Flickr Photostream last year. I thought this photo would be a fun interpretation of this week's Texture Tuesday theme, Happiness.

Since this was a JPEG image, I made just a few basic edits in Adobe Camera Raw, such as Cropping, Noise Reduction,  Exposure and a Tone Curve adjustment, but didn't adjust the White Balance at all. I decreased the Saturation and Luminosity of the Reds, Yellows and Greens to tone down the background.


When I opened the image in Photoshop as a Smart Object, I used the Clone Tool on a blank layer to fill in the white patch in the upper left hand corner. I created a path with the pen tool to curve the text and added a Drop Shadow to it. 


The texure I used was Warm Sun by Kim Klassen, which I set to Soft Light Blend Mode at 40%. I brushed away the texture from the kitty and reduced the opacity of the layer mask to 70% in the Mask Panel. 

Now on to trying to catch up with Beyond Layers. I've decided not to put so much pressure on myself  and just do the best I can!

Have a lovely Valentine's Day!

11 comments:

...C o w R o a d... said...

Too cute Elaine!!! And I love how you curved your text. How did you do that? :-)

Susan said...

Oh my...how cute!! He looks like my cat.

Happy Valentine's Day♥

Anonymous said...

Delightful image!

nancyjean said...

oh he looks just so content! great capture. I hope your Valentine's day was filled with happiness

Sweetpea said...

Heh, thanks HEAPS for writing the process down...so helpful for those of us relatively new to the world of photo manipulation. And that kitty is the total MEOW...sweeeet!

Kathy said...

So sweet...great editing.

Unknown said...

Hi Elaine – love your photo! All of your adjustments made such a difference in the look of his fur – it gave it such warmth, just amazing. And I love the text, it’s super cool and just perfect.

Red Rose Alley said...

I thought this little kitty was on a card. You really did a great job on this picture. You worked on this for awhile, and it turned out wonderful.
~Sheri at Red Rose Alley

Kia said...

Awwww, so precious! Just perfect for happiness! :)
And thanks for the reminder: I never ever remember to use ACR for Noise Reduction! Till a few weeks ago I didn't even know what ACR was, LOL! I know, shame on me! ;)
About BL, just enjoy yourself! Hubby and I are far behind too, but we still have 11 months to catch up! :D
Happy Sunday!

Lisa said...

Gorgeous.

Barbara Franceschini said...

great post!!! well done!!! :D

My photoblog: www.photographyforpassion.blogspot.com