Dash Kitten

Cat Photo Confidence For Everyone, Including You

  • Home
    • GET IN TOUCH
    • PRIVACY POLICY
  • About Me
    • Awards
    • Dash Kitten Commemoration
      • The Pinnectomy. Harvey’s Ear Surgery Report
  • Learn Cat Photo Skills
    • Photo Blog
    • #52Assignments Collected Posts Page
  • Learn Cat Movie Skills
  • D.K. Crew’s Quarters
    • New Zealand Spotlight
    • The DK Mailing List
    • Product Reviews & Gift Guides
    • Our Special Pet Blogger Interviews
HOME » Silhouette Surprise Photo

Silhouette Surprise Photo

09/08/2020 by Marjorie Dawson 14 Comments

There is a magic to your pets, even when the photos don’t work out as you expect. That photo you really hoped would be amazing and isn’t, what do you do?

  • The first thing you do is stop being disappointed and take a breath.

There is often something you can do with your photo. Even a simple crop can rescue a photo. Turning it from a disaster to something you can share on your social media account or post on a blog.

An example of a photo rescue

As it is winter here in New Zealand, the light is not as strong as it is during the summer months. The photographs I took of the black kittens did not come out very well and, as you can see here, the only thing you can see on the fur is a cat collar.

  • I could have increased the ISO, and tinkered with shutter speeds but my aim was to try photos without a lot of ‘settings adjustments’. The trip was meant to be a relaxing break, this time!

Lots of overexposed background, a bit of customer’s elbow and an alert looking black kitten. At first, I was disappointed but I left the photo for a while and thought about what I could do.

If you are in the same position, I suggest you do the same. Walk away for a while, make a cup of tea or coffee and leave your photo alone.

I returned to the photo a couple of days later to look at it with fresh eyes.

The Silhouette Suprise

I experimented with cropping and removed the mystery customer’s elbow and some of the white space off the top. Then I opened the Affinity Photo program and adjusted several of the sliders in the Black and White filter.

Silhouette surprise with a black kitten backlit while appealing for food.

Without spending too much time fussing, I was able to soften the extreme background a bit and transform the black cat almost into a papercut picture or a silhouette surprise.

Cat Writers’ Association

STOP PRESS

I have won a Muse® Medallion, and the special Kuykendall Image Award for my photos in the Cat Writers 2019 Communications contest.

Smartphones can take great photos too.

More Posts to Enjoy

  • Adding a Touch of Colour in a Black and White Cat Photo
  • One Step Transformations For Your Pet Photos
  • How to Apply a Filter to Your Own Cat Photos
  • Beginner’s Photography Post Roundup
  • Tuxedo Cat Selfie in Black and White
Join Dash Kitten on Social Media
20
Visit Us
Follow Me
Vimeo
fb-share-icon
Share
Pin
Tweet
Share
Share

Filed Under: Camera Skills

Meet Marjorie, Writer and Photographer

Portrait by a window with teddy bears Taken with a smartphone.Marjorie is a cat lover, photographer and smartphone moviemaker who loves sharing her knowledge with learners.

Marjorie is a Cat Writers’ Association Professional member, CWA Muse® Medallion and Certificate Winner, and winner of the CWA Kuykendall Image Award for her photography.

 

Comments

  1. World Of Animals, Inc. says

    12/08/2020 at 10:21 am

    Congratulations on your big win. We always like taking photos of our sweet ones and now we know what we can do if the photo doesn’t come out right and what effects we could use to make it better. Thanks for the share. Have a great rest of your day.

    Reply
  2. da tabbies o trout towne says

    12/08/2020 at 4:44 am

    CONGRATS on your awards Marjorie, how cool is this !!! 🙂 ♥♥

    Reply
  3. Seville at Nerissa's life says

    11/08/2020 at 3:24 am

    The peeps and I are so, so, SOOO PROUD of you, my friend. CONGRATULATIONS!!! You definitely deserve that award. PURRS

    Reply
  4. Athena and Marie says

    11/08/2020 at 3:11 am

    Lovely photo and advice!

    Reply
  5. The Island Cats says

    10/08/2020 at 12:59 pm

    Congrats on your Awards! Sadly, we cannot see any of your photos on your blog while on our iPad. We don’t know why that is.

    Reply
    • Marjorie Dawson says

      10/08/2020 at 1:36 pm

      Not sure why that should be. Have you checked the settings in your iPad? I can’t find anyone with a similar issue.

      Reply
  6. Ellen Pilch says

    10/08/2020 at 12:24 pm

    Congrats on your medallion! Well deserved. XO

    Reply
  7. Melissa & Mudpie says

    10/08/2020 at 11:45 am

    That is such a striking image! Huge Concatulations on your well-deserved honors!

    Reply
  8. Lola The Rescued Cat says

    10/08/2020 at 6:01 am

    Concatulations on your win! Very well deserved.

    Reply
  9. Timmy Tomcat says

    10/08/2020 at 4:25 am

    We are starting to learn how to get our photos to look much better with PaintShop. Love your tips thanks so much

    Reply
  10. BellaDharma an LadyMew says

    10/08/2020 at 3:35 am

    Wee love yor fotoss Miss Marjorie…which kitty iss this? (Sorry LadyMew furgot!!)
    **purrss** BellaDharma

    Reply
  11. meowmeowmans says

    10/08/2020 at 2:18 am

    That photo certainly did turn out well in the end! Congratulations on your Muse Medallion and the Kuykendall Image Award. That is so exciting! 🙂

    Reply
  12. Erin the Cat says

    09/08/2020 at 6:24 pm

    The joys of Black and White! Lovely shot, even when it wasn’t quite as you thought.
    Definitely recommend Affinity as there is sooo much you can do and the one-off price is awesome.
    Congrats on your awards – the timing of the ceremony was way to catnap UNFRIENDLY for us.
    Purrs
    ERin

    Reply
  13. Brian Frum says

    09/08/2020 at 10:50 am

    Looks totally purrfect to us!

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Join Our Mailing List!

Discover, Learn, Share, Teach.

Dash Kitten Contact Us Graphic for the Blog

Kuykendall Image Award Winner 2020

Cat Writers’ Association
Link to the About Me page introducing Marjorie, Author of the blog at Dash Kitten

CWA Muse® Medallion Winner

Graphic for an Award winner to display on their web site.

Associate Disclaimer

Dash Kitten is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking Amazon.com

RIP Friend Nerissa the Cat

A memorial tribute picture and link to our fellow adventurer

Please follow & like us :)

20
Visit Us
Follow Me
Vimeo
fb-share-icon

Humarian for Pets and People

Humarian Probiotics Promotional graphic for my favourite probiotics

Quote DASHKITTEN for 20% OFF your first order.

Triple Finalist – Nose to Nose Awards 2018

Nose to Nose Awards 2018

Blog Collaboration Award

Special Certificate 2015
Dash Kitten Newsletter Link and Logo including a cute picture of Miranda the cat
Dash Kitten Contact Us Graphic for the Blog

Dash Kitten Social Media

20
Visit Us
Follow Me
Vimeo
fb-share-icon
Dash Kitten Newsletter Logo

NEWS FROM DASH KITTEN

  • Telephoto Lens Zoo Fun at Wellington Zoo
  • Shooting Street Life Photos #52Assignments No. 8
  • Cat Photography Ideas Go Macro
  • New Cafe Kittens – Pooka the Tuxedo
  • The Great Outdoors #52Assignments No. 7
A link to my About Met page

Copyright Notice for Dash Kitten ©

All images and text used on this site, from its creation to date are copyrighted ©  to Marjorie Dawson, Whskr and Dash Kitten.com unless otherwise noted.  Content cannot be used without my specific written permission. Please let me know via the Get In Touch page if you are interested in using images or stories from DashKitten.com

Copyright © 2021 · Enterprise Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

40 SHARE