Peggy Nugent
About the Image(s)
This image sort of evolved.
I had the shot of the jaguar and was happy with it until I brought it to a critique at our camera club. The critiquer correctly pointed out how difficult it is to see the face and eyes because the spots on the body work so well as camouflage.
So then I thought of various ways to have the face clear but only suggest the rest of the animal. Emerging from a book was my favorite. I bought a used copy of Kipling's Second Jungle Book in hopes of finding some useful text.
I originally tried to have distorted words as the black spots, but it didn't work as I hoped, so I went for this look.
Execution was straightforward - masking in the jaguar over the book (one layer in soft light mode, a second masking in mostly the eyes), adjusting brightness, converting to black and white. I wanted to emphasize the feeling of the animal coming out, and so applied a fisheye filter centered on the eyes. That distorted the page on the left, so I masked in a shot from a slightly different angle and blurred most of the text.
I had the second foot coming out (low opacity) but it seemed confusing so I cloned it out at the last.
Should I keep that bright spot in the upper right corner? It seemed like a good idea at the time.
This round’s discussion is now closed!
10 comments posted
I really love what you did here! The theme, the jaguar coming out of the book, so very well done.
I like the decision to make it mono too!
To me, the bright spot can go... it's not adding anything to the overall photo.
One question... what about the light directionality? The book has light from the left. Could your jaguar use a little shadowing as his emerging foot would look more real?
Just a thought because overall the composite is delightful!
  Posted: 06/02/2020 18:13:14
bright corner. I wonder how the image would look if you left
the jaguar original color or just slightly yellow.   Posted: 06/04/2020 13:38:35
And after reading Aavo's and Alan's feedback, I might try a bit of color in the eyes as well.   Posted: 06/09/2020 16:14:36