One of my photos

[mikemeister_admin]

My cat Allie K sitting in the sun. I think I improved it a little

[ggroess]

NC4TC,
I would agree that you have improved the image a bit. 
I'd like to ask a few questions??

When you started you had a destination in mind. 

Did you feel like you got all the way there? 
Did you you address all the areas of the image you thought about??

I'd like to help you more if the answer to either of these questions is no. 
Let me know what you want to try to tackle...There might be more if you want to go into it...
Greg

[mikemeister_admin]

NC4TC,
I would agree that you have improved the image a bit. 
I'd like to ask a few questions??

When you started you had a destination in mind. 

Did you feel like you got all the way there? 
Did you you address all the areas of the image you thought about??

I'd like to help you more if the answer to either of these questions is no. 
Let me know what you want to try to tackle...There might be more if you want to go into it...
Greg

Actually my idea was to reduce the  brightness without losing the detail in the cat.
I  did not know how to get the wood chips  to look less flat. I think it has to do with the sun on the glass interfering. Overall I am pleased. Thanks

[ggroess]

NC,

I kicked this around for 2 days and I think for me at least the best answer to the Bark in the background might be a to use "burn" to darken it.  It is so close to other elements in the frame the only other way I persoanlly could see doing this is with a mask.  I tried it in all color spaces. I could improve other aspects of the frame but the bark on the ground was always "flat"  the only thing that seemed to make any difference was "burn".

You could create a layer set it to overlay with 50% fill and paint the burn on using a brush...sort of...

Greg

[mikemeister_admin]

NC,

I kicked this around for 2 days and I think for me at least the best answer to the Bark in the background might be a to use "burn" to darken it.  It is so close to other elements in the frame the only other way I persoanlly could see doing this is with a mask.  I tried it in all color spaces. I could improve other aspects of the frame but the bark on the ground was always "flat"  the only thing that seemed to make any difference was "burn".

You could create a layer set it to overlay with 50% fill and paint the burn on using a brush...sort of...

Greg

Greg, I appreciate that. At least now I know that it wasn't  my ineptitude with curves.