A Rabbit's Face

It's been a while since I've published anything to this blog. I would like to make it more of a common thing to do, after each shoot, just post a few images and tell the story behind them.

I'm going to start with this shot from my shoot with the lovely Dominique and her fluffy rabbit Bun Bun. Why have I chosen this image you might ask? Well, because you've undoubtedly noticed how processed it is. The cool thing is, you hopefully havn't seen the real reason behind the photoshop.

So let me introduce to you the original image:

Original Image

Yep, Bun Bun has no face! Now normally I'd just pass up this photo and go find the next one. But Dominique selected this as one of her choices, and I personally liked it. Except for the face missing bits. The problem with shooting animals is, that they never really do what you'd like them to do. So come hell or high water and bribes of carrots, Bun Bun refused to pose again so I could retake the shot.

I've been indoctrinated to never let a face be cropped off in a photo, so I took this as a challenge that needed to be faced.

First thing I needed to do was find a face for Bun Bun. Not any rabbit would do, it would have to be Bun Bun's own face. I eventually found this shot from the shoot. The closest match to the above photo with Bun Bun's own fluffy face:

Replacement Face

Now I could go into great detail about how I did what, but I shall not, simply because this is not a tutorial and it would be boring. So instead I will tell you three things; Yes, I went over board on the eyes. The longest part of this process was removing rabbit fur from Dominique's dress. And the largest secret, I desaturated the final image for one reason only... to hide the left over red traces from the chair behind the whiskers.

So in short, I did this:

Basic Process