reshanks

[Hillebrand Breuker]

This an image of a common redshanks which I photographed with a 20D and 500/4 IS+1.4tc. The mom was calling for her chick and I hoped to get them both in 1 frame. Unfortunatly it did not happen :( I have them both in separate frames..... Though it did not work out as I wanted with both birds, i am still happy with this one.

If you respond, could you give some detailed feedback on how to work on the color of the grass. I am not sure if I am happy with that. To my eye it looks a bit unnatural and need some advice how to improve it.

Thanks!

[Manos Papadomanolakis]

Great colors!!!

[Jim Poor]

Hi, here is a trick.

Duplicate the BG layer select Filter > Blur > Average. Then add a levels adjustment layer to the now solid color layer you have. Select the mid tone eye dropper and click on the image (it will turn neutral gray) Turn off the visibility of the "averaged layer" but leave the adjustment layer on. Adjust the opacity of the levels layer to taste.

Then turn it into a mask and mask out the bird to get it back to a normal color.

You could also do the selection first and then the blur average. I would probably repeat the process with just the bird as it looks to have a bit of a cast too.

Edit: I learned this from a guy named Chas on another forum so I can't take credit for how easy this method is to remove casts.

[Axel Hildebrandt]

I like the setting and open bill. As for the grass, have you tried to desaturate the greens 10-15 points or so?

[Hillebrand Breuker]

Jim

Thanks for the detailed workflow. I ´ll give that some work. First impression is real good.

Axel, yep allready tried that. It gave some result, but not an pleasing overall result.

[Hillebrand Breuker]

Here is the reworked image following Jim's advice. What do you think. ok? or is it too dull, sometimes it is hard to see if it is allright what you are doing ;-) (My monitor is calibrated by the way)

[Axel Hildebrandt]

The repost doesn't really look better, IMHO. The greens (and maybe yellow) still look oversaturated.