Lets see some face shots, portraits lit by direct sunlight.

Meet:
Norman


Cassidy


Chloe


Stewart


And one hot Wiggy

The first one is just wonderful!

I agree. The first is beautiful. The second one is very nice also. Did you by some chance consider trying shadow/highlights on the second photo? It might take out a tiny bit of the shadow area and help with the over-all appearance.

Was the first one a deliberate pose or was it just caught in the moment? Either way, it is quite excellent.

James

Thanks Julie and James,
The first one was not as much deliberate as coaxed. He was in the sun already and when I started clicking away we sat up to leave and I coaxed him to stay:) You know you never tell a cat to DO anything:)

James I will play around with the shadows some and see if I can get something better. Thanks.

PS; Sorry if my Pbase account is giving you the red x sometimes.

Hey Jeff,

I am sorry. For some reason I am now seeing many more photos than I did yesterday. The second photo with the dog in the morning light is very good (though I wish there was a tad bit less squint). I love morning sunlight (I ASSUME that is morning sunlight? It has a very long look to it). The image I was referring to initially is now the last image in your group.

Let us know about the shadow-highlights. It is my favorite tool in PS, and the reason why I upgraded from 7. I am waiting for CS 3 before I jump again.

Cheers
James

James,
Now I understand when you initially said to boost the shadows, yes in the last image it is more beneficial. I will play with that, but I do not have the tool you are referring to. I can simulate it, and will play some. I wish that were a RAW capture as apposed to a jpg then I would really have flexibility. I just recently made the switch to RAW processing. I really didn’t have the PC power to do it before and now I do. So to try it out, I have been using RSE and plan on switching to Nikon Capture as soon as this new version is released. After I see what’s in there I will decide on what else I need. My version of PS is PSE2 which I am happy with for jpg processing.

The true second photo was taken in late evening as apposed to morning. With me it is a safe bet, that it's almost always late not early:) I will admit though, photography has gotten me out of bed earlier then any other activity and more often. But I still almost never see sunrise.

Squint is a bitch. I mean the light is perfect, but it is in their eyes. And in this particular shot she was intent on looking right into it:)

I like the first one very much

Is the black dog a lab/pit cross??

Thanks Edward. Norman is a good "poser" if he is well distracted. Sunbathing is a good distraction.

Very good Julie, but we usually say Lab mix:) And don't tell her, she is already scared of her shadow.

They eyes are the giveaway I just recently lost my lab/pit mix at 15 years old. Smartest dog that ever walked and by far the most loyal. She was always dog aggressive, but she loved people and kids. She was a gift from a boyfriend(and my husband came around when she was a year old)

Putting her to sleep was one of the hardest things I have had to do. Thankfully, we were able to do so at the house. She went from being fine on a Monday evening to dying on a Wednesday night. Probably a pancreatic tumor. She was tough and stoic to the end.

This photo will show why I recognized the mix, Rio at age 14. Crappy photo technically, but, it is a good photo of her