First shot is the final version, the second is the unedited shot (with exposure increased slightly from SOOC) and the third is a quick comparison with a few key items highlighted.
I liked this shot initially because of Tonic's position - he seemed ready to spring. I felt like the form created by his position was a nice, compact shape that appealed to me. This is some of what I did to bump up the drama in this shot.
1 Adjust the horizon so it's level.
2 Cropped to the rule of thirds.
3 Warmed up the yellows by shifting them slightly more red and increased saturation of eyes and fur.
4 Dodging and burning fur and eyes via layers set to color dodge & soft light.
5 Increasing exposure in a few areas that I thought were important but were dark, like the curled tail and hanging paws.
6 Cloned the catch light from one eye onto the second so they matched a bit better.
7 Darkened the background to draw eyes to the subject, but still left in enough ground so as not to make my subject appear to float.
8 Sharpened the head and paws slightly.
9 Added a layer set to "color" to adjust colour very slightly in select areas.
10 General clean up of errant hairs, treats etc with healing brush or lasso tool -> fill.
11 Used the liquify tool to exaggerate the poofy tail a little more.
All in all, the edit doesn't take too long once I know what I want out of a shot.
