Rainbow and Eucalpyt

[Glennie Passier]

Here's anothery!

Almost FF.
In ACR - Shadows and blacks to the right.
In PSCS6 - Curves layer adjustment on BG. BG cloned and painted. Stray leaves removed from around the edge. NR on BG. Cropped and smart sharpened for posting.

Canon 5D2
Sigma 150-600 @289mm
f7.1
1/1250
ISO 1000
Spot metering
Tripod

[Adhika Lie]

Of all three shots, Glennie, this is absolutely the winner. Beautiful perch, beautiful subject separation, beautiful BG.

[Andrew Harrell]

Glennie: Time to confess that these are trained birds ..... :S3:

Nothing to critique in my eye. Well-balanced crop, everything in focus, no casts, and engaging client!!

Would you mind explaining a bit more about what you mean with "BG cloned and painted"? I want to understand the technique.


thanks, AP

[Diane Miller]

She's got these guys on retainer....

I absolutely LOVE the perch and pose here! Great job on the BG. Colors and tonalities are wonderful!

I wish the leaves weren't so close to the bottom but it might be possible to add a little canvas there...

The BG in the top 2/3 is quite a bit smoother than in the bottom 1/3 -- I think I'd experiment with just a little less smoothing.

When you say Blacks to the right -- what does the initial histogram (before any corrections) look like? Usually you would only move blacks t the left, to close a gap in the histogram when appropriate (which isn't always). Don't use it to lighten an image -- use Exposure for that. It will give you less contrast. That strategy may work in some cases but isn't the general way to do things. Shadows should be more than enough to lighten dark tones.

[Glennie Passier]

Thank you Andrew and Adhika. Andrew, Cloning and painting. I am in no way suggesting this is a good thing to do. The image should be shot with as clean BGs as you can muster. Unfortunately, for me, being a bit house bound at times, I have to make the most of what I have. The technique is quite simple, but can look quite phony if not done subtly. Diane has picked up some good points. Simply mask the bird. I have chosen to use colours in the lower half of the image. The top half was just too dark for my taste. Use the paint brush and change the colour with the eyedropper. I drop the opacity down a lot, so as to leave the original colour show through in places. Clone some areas to make the BG look a little uneven. Again only use a small opacity. And that's it. A bit of touch up work is sometimes necessary to clean up edges. I'm sure there are other ways to do this...but this is what I do.

Diane, Thank you. I can add canvas to be bottom. But will that make the image too long? Should I take some off the top? I know painting and cloning is no substitute for a good clean BG. I figure it's just another tool up my sleeve. Yes. The top half of the image was the one worked on more with the paint, so probably a little less opacity? I'm at work now! ( I can't help but to have a peak to see if anyone has made a comment!) so can't check the Black slider. However, I know I am having great difficulty with these birds in ACR. The colour of the bird is spot on, and no vibrance of HSL at all. The BG was dark and when I moved the exposure slider to the right it just washed out the bird. I also tried shadows. It hardly made a difference. Moving the black slider was the only one that seemed to lighten the BG. I almost did nothing in ACR with the thought of taking it straight into PS.

[Diane Miller]

Adding to the bottom would only make the image too long if you are committed to a certain aspect ratio. (I never want to be.) But I'm only suggesting a smidgen, which could come off the top if necessary.

Try doing a better exposure in-camera so you're not having to move it right in ACR. But if/when you do, try moving Highlights left to compensate somewhat. (Results will vary with the image.)

You said, "I almost did nothing in ACR with the thought of taking it straight into PS." That is not the way to go. You have TONS more tonal overhead in ACR!! Except for cloning and detailed local adjustments, or composition, I rarely need to take images into PS. I shot 1000 baby pictures a couple of weeks ago, in all kinds of awful low and mixed light, pushing ISO as much as I dared, and probably 95% were printed or exported directly from the raw files.

Every image is so different, the bottom line is to do whatever works. And things are working very well for you!!