Photograph critique would be appreciated..
 

I just came on to this forum to see what it's about and see there are some photographers here - so, if you wouldn't mind helping out a novice, here are two pictures that I would appreciate getting improvement advice for... My camera is a Canon Rebel Digital SLR.. I've reduced the size on both of them and I've been trying to darken the leaf above Shadow's head with no success yet. Any and all suggestions are appreciated! Just noticed my second picture did not upload so I'll post it in a separate message.

2nd picture
 

This is Amber - my youngest Golden - taken on Friday morning..

I don't have any advice but i love Shadow's pic, the green of his eyes with the grass and leaves is so cool ! As for Amber ; :eek: :D

Do you have the original of the first one? I would have just photoshopped it out, if it was possible... Or just left it.:o
It's good on it's own.:)

The second one just needed a faster shutter speed. What ISO is your camera set on? You can see it in the first menu in the manual side (i.e. on any of P, Tv, Av settings). When the light isn't bright, you can try jacking it up to 400 or 800, and if it's really bad, even 1600. It'll let you get your speed up so at least your pic won't have any blur.

Thank you, Prin - I'll check the shutter speed. Photoshop is on its way - I should have it this week so I'll play with it. Thanks again.

I 'overgreened' it
 

brings out the detail in the kitty's face, although keeping it looking so dark in the original is really cool, and it for sure no longer looks 'natural'.

Was about 5 minutes of goofing around with photoshop.. youll love it!

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I like the cat photograph - neat composition, very "natural" setting. I wouldn't worry about the leaves. Black is difficult to photograph, so you've lost some details. Also, the cat appears to be "in shadow".

Regarding the dog photograph, it is a great "candid" but the lighting is still a bit "off" and the dog is slightly blurry. Did you use a flash for either image?

No, I didn't use a flash and a photographer friend in Winnipeg said I should have used one. Unfortunately, I doubt very much that I will find Shadow in the same position again but I'll keep the camera handy just in case - but I'll wait for warmer weather now :)

Thanks for the comments, everyone..

I found the original -

overexposure
 

Pulling detail out of the shadow areas of a digital photograph is fairly simple in photoshop using curves or the shadow highlight adjustment. Blown out highlights on the other hand are your worst nightmare. There are simply no pixels there to work with. I created a path and took a selection out of another leaf and did a little touching up with the clone tool. It's a little rough because of the size of the image but thats how I would fix it.

photo
 

Sorry made the photo too large.

Great shot of the cat ! Love the colours...!:thumbs up

RichM you did a wonderful job! I went out and bought Photoshop Elements about a week ago but I'm not satisfied with it so just today I loaded Photoshop. I'll play around with it to see what I can do but you did the leaf above Shadow's head beautifully! Let's see if I can match it!
Thanks for the advice.