This is an odd-eyed Siamese cat. I don’t think I have seen one before…
This is just another example of easy and relatively minor photoshopping. I am not saying it is good work. It only took me about 25 minutes. I cut out the yellow eye (not literally!) from a genuine odd-eyed cat (see below) and placed it over the blue eye of the Siamese cat. I had to tidy up the eye before pasting it over and I also tidied up the area around the eye after placing it so that it blended in more naturally. I also altered the shape of the eye and its angle so that it fitted the space more accurately.
I darkened the yellow eye slightly too. The idea was to make it more subtle, less in-your-face.
I also had to enlarge the pupil of the yellow eye to match the pupil of the blue eye on the Siamese cat. The pupil is the dark area in the middle of the eye. I did this through cloning. You copy a tiny part of the image, in this case a dark area and clone that area over the iris. It is done at pixel level. In other words, the image is greatly enlarged so you see the actual pixels (the building blocks of the image).
It looks unreal because it is unreal. Here is the original odd-eyed cat:
The medical term for odd-eyes is: heterochromia iridum. It is caused by the white spotting gene (piebald gene) or a gene that makes a cat white all over ( dominant white gene – “W“), which also takes the color out of the iris of the yellow eye making it blue. Blue eyes are blue because they lack pigment. The blue color is due to the dispersal of light within the iris. Are there any odd-eyed Siamese cats? The gene that gives the Siamese its special coat is not one of the genes mentioned. It does not remove pigment from eyes as far as I am aware. Sarah Hartwell will tell me about that!
Michael,
Years ago when I was extremely active in cat clubs and shows (I had completed all my requirements to apply to the judging program in CFA), the aroma of baby powder wafted through the aisles of the long-hair exhibitors.
Apparently it was not against show rules to use baby powder during the grooming process. It seems that baby powder helps to fluff the coat. It is not considered “cheating”. BUT coloring paw pads and nose leather is a huge no-no. I observed one particular breeder with a Seal-Point Siamese color the cat’s paw pads and a bit on the nose leather- and was eliminated by the judge. The color of that cat’s paw pads and nose leather were cinnamon colored, not a rich deep brown.
You are absolutely correct about photoshopping to enhance a cat’s appearance, making it extremely tempting for unscupulous breeders selling cats on the Internet to use this process. It is a darned shame-
Thanks for that info about baby powder. I had no idea. I disagree with the rules because it’s like putting on makeup. Perhaps that is what cat shows are: beauty pageants in the human-style.
EEEK.. LOL.. That is so “odd” looking Michael- although it is certainly creative.
Reminds me of some folks who show cats that may not totally fit the standard- they have found creative ways to “doctor” their cats to make them look purrfect.
Ages ago I was clerking for a judge at a show. She was judging the Abyssinian class. The table top was still a bit damp from the disinfectant that had been sprayed (done between every cat) and little dark paw prints appeared on the table.
The owner had “doctored” the paw pads which were too light to be in compliance of the standard. Needless to say the cat was disqualified. The judge also happened to be a first-class breeder of Abys.
I think it would be appropriate to say, “Don’t mess with Mother Nature”.
LOL
I remember being at a cat show in Oklahoma and the owner of a white LaPerm brought his cat in for Helmi to photograph and when he put her down and then picked her up there was a pile of white power on the table. There seems to be a bit of cheating going on.
Photoshopping is certainly available for cat breeders to enhance the appearance of their cats on their websites.
Michael, seeing your “Photo Shop Photo’s” is changing my concept of a “Photograph tells a thousand words” ! In the “DIGITAL AGE” of the 21st century the saying could be, quote, “A digital photograph can be used to tell a thousand lies ” !
Oh yes, Rudolph. All those Pinterest photos that look so gorgeous and smooth, no blemishes etc.. They are all cleaned up and prettied up with Photoshop.
Michael: I’m currently learning Photoshop, InDesign and Illustrator. Do you use any/all of these? I went ahead and got the entire Adobe CS6 Pro Suite. It has Flash tools, Fireworks (for animation) and Dreamweaver, a website development tool. It was 74% off full retail with my school discount. Still a good chunk of change. I got all the programming tools from Microsoft for free. My grad date is now 2018.
Speaking of websites. I need to build a small website for my Intro to Web Design Class. Nothing fancy really. I need the rights to use some: Ashera, Bengal, Birman, Chausie, Highland Fold, Highland Lynx, Maine Coons, Norwegian Forest Cat, Ragamuffin, Ragdoll, Safarai Cat, Savannah, Siberian or any big — 15 lbs/6.8KG+ The site will be about big breed cats and I will focus on Maine Coon, NWF and probably Ragdoll? Not sure, depends on what photos I can get a hold of. I will share a link as soon as it goes live for those who want to see the site to check it out. It will go down at the end of the semester.
Love your Photoshop work Michael. I hope to work up some magazine style articles using InDesign someday… when the world slows down.
H Dan, because of time constrains I just use Photoshop Elements which is good enough for me. I also use Picasa (a free Google application) for some things. In the past I used Paint.
I am pleased that you are working in this area. I wish I had chosen it years ago. I like imagery and the creative side of it. Although I can be impatient and it takes patience. I am naturally very precise, though, which helps.
The full Adobe C56 is an awesome bit of software. It must take some learning. I might go on a course myself for fun. Everything I have done is self-taught by trial and error. I’d like to expand my knowledge.
Please feel free to show off you work on PoC. I’d love to see your stuff – the good and the bad. You could even pass on some tips and tricks. How about that for an idea?
I’d be glad to share some tips as I learn them. I know that balance is important and placement. If you divide the paper or screen area into a 3 x 3 grid, items anchored on the four places the lines intersect are supposed to be more ascetically pleasing to the senses. Dividing the top 1/3 for titles, etc. with the bottom 2/3 for content is also visually pleasing. “White Space” (the space with out text or images) is just as important as the other elements of any piece. The empty space helps center the eye on the various elements on the page. Just some basics of design.
Easier surely to change the colour of the eye on the original photo?
I thought about that but you’d have to convert blue to yellow and I am not you’d end up with a true color for a yellow eye as seen in an odd-eyed cat.
When we have the POC party we’ll be queuing up for Michael to beautify us with his photoshop!
I’ll be first in the queue 😉 God, when I look at myself in the mirror (not often) I think….I won’t tell you what I think.
You and me both – so it’s makeovers at the party for sure then.
I guess we know, now, how people on Facebook come up with such freak shows.
How can we tell what is real?
You seem to be having some fun, Michael.
I do like messing around with images. It makes a change from words. The biggest con with respect to Photoshopping is photos of celebrities and models. There is a lot of enhancement: slimmer, better figure, bigger boobs, you name it. You really can’t tell where the truth is in an image these days.
lol very clever Michael 😉
I’ve never seen any odd eyed Siamese cats in my life, only the ones with beautiful blue eyes
Nor me. I am waiting for Sarah Hartwell to tell me they are very common 😉
Michael my job is in part, to do exactly the sort of thing you are doing on photoshop! I constantly have to alter ‘reality’ a bit to suit a layout or something. I’ve gotten pretty quick at it. It’s fun isn’t it!
Yes, it is fun and reality often needs to be altered! Day to day, the only use I have for photoshop is to clean up images: make them smaller, tidier, brighter, remove color casts, adjust contrast, reduce highlights etc.. And I use it for montages and so on.
If you do something complicated it can take hours and I don’t have the time.