Jeff Nadler
01-23-2008, 09:09 AM
One of my most common dilemmas photographing BIF is caused by our constant dreary cloudy skies. I occasionally take images when exposure compensation was not set enough, resulting in a whitish sky and still somewhat underexposed bird. During Raw conversion, one can boost the compensation within reason. But usually not enough and only makes the sky that much whiter.
My most common approach in PS is to to try selecting the bird only, and applying levels and curves or shadows/highlights to it. Don't want to do this on the entire image as it takes an already whitish sky and makes it too hot. I would use the magic wand to select the sky, then selection inverse to then grab the bird only.
There are two resulting issues with this approach:
1) The magic wand approach usually creates heavy artifacts along the borders of the bird, where selective curves or S/H was applied.
2) Increasing the curves or shadows on the bird dramatically increases noise, often in the wings.
What technique might be better?
My most common approach in PS is to to try selecting the bird only, and applying levels and curves or shadows/highlights to it. Don't want to do this on the entire image as it takes an already whitish sky and makes it too hot. I would use the magic wand to select the sky, then selection inverse to then grab the bird only.
There are two resulting issues with this approach:
1) The magic wand approach usually creates heavy artifacts along the borders of the bird, where selective curves or S/H was applied.
2) Increasing the curves or shadows on the bird dramatically increases noise, often in the wings.
What technique might be better?