[Mike Hodgson]

Here's a pic of my cat, a Norwegian Forest Cat, her name is Puddy, though, when I found her as a kitten at my place of work, a fish plant, I originally named her "Blue" as in Blue Catfish. Haha

camera, Nikon D200, Two flashes, a Nikon SB800 on Camera bounce style with white card and a Nikon SB80DX sitting on the floor as you can see the lower catch light in "Her" left eye.

Now, photoshop. Well, in CS3 camera raw, fine adjustments. Effect, there's a method out there that is used on skin, all sorts of names, from "prettysizer, gaussian blur, median, dust scratches, noise reduction, noise ninja, neat image." and so on and so forth.
I did so using Gaussian Blur, however, I only used it on the background, as you can see, the hair does not look "Stiff, Buttery, Smooth, Pixelated, Plastic, Hard, Flat." The hair retained details.

How?
When I applied the Gaussian Blur at 20, I also clicked mask and created a 50% gray to paint back in the CAT, using the brush tool, reduced opacity at overlay.

If you are working on skin, same thing can be done, YOU MUST, erase back, Hair, Jewelry, eyes, lips, clothes, that way it won't look as obvious. Whether you do this on your own or an action. I choose a soft brush at 100 and depends on the job, either 100% opacity or 24-30. In this case, it wasn't skin, so, 100% opacity was chosen.

Next Tute, I'll post a Portrait of a model and I'll do a step by step Tute on a basic face job.

Until Next time, here's Puddy. 

[Marian Murdoch]

Can you post "before" pictures, too?

[Mike Hodgson]

I'll do that when I do the Portrait Tute, hopefully with screen captures. fingers crossed. :=)

[Marian Murdoch]

I'll do that when I do the Portrait Tute, hopefully with screen captures. fingers crossed. :=)

Woooo hooo!!!!

[Travis Minnig]

List of Mike's 'tutes':

Lights, camera, photoshop action!

Stinky!!     J/K

Sorry Mike, I can't help making jokes about tutes!  It's the seven-year-old in me.

Travis

[Mike Hodgson]

I don't tute, I drop bombs.   

[Marian Murdoch]

Men..........

[Mike Hodgson]

prrrrrrrrrrt!!!!!!!!

[Marian Murdoch]

Honestly, you guys keep this up and I'm going to have to velcro my butt to the chair so I don't keep falling out of it in laughter.

[Mike Hodgson]

You're cool Marian.   

Glad you take this all in stride.

[Ginnypenny]

You're cool Marian.   

Glad you take this all in stride.

Yeah, cause I am totally offended and way too prissy for all this.  Hmph!

[Mike Hodgson]

Remember the program on T.V. called "The Facts of Life" a girl by the name of Tutee, C'mon, no connotations there.? It's all part of life's natural process.   

[Ginnypenny]

I remember that show.  I think it was Tudy though!  You know, like Trudy without the "r".  I could be wrong.

[Mike Hodgson]

Yep, you're right, still, close enough.

[Travis Minnig]

Tute, Tudy, tooter, Canon, bomb....  What difference does it make, really?  It's all funny!!

 

Sorry for screwing up your post Mike.  It was fun for a minute though.  I feel a little relieved myself.

Oh, BTW, nice cat photo.  Do you do anything specific to keep the blur effect in tact around all the cat's fine hairs?  This could be very time consuming and tedious, couldn't it?

Travis