Black capped chicadee

[Gene Herzberg]

My first submission. Taken on a walk around a pond near home is St. John's Newfoundland

[Alfred Forns]

Hi Gene Big Welcome !!!!

Last time I was over at St John's the fog was so thick I could not see far enough to find a bird !!!!

Lots of good things going on here Your exposure is right on with a good head angle and very sharp Light is the one thing that would help Birds in mixed light are generally not going to work Lots of shadows on the little guy Would also wish for a little less room on the tail side and more on the other With the bg you can select it and blur it a bit Particularly the stick growing out of his back

Glad you were able to find cooperative subjects These are generally difficult !!!

[Jim Poor]

I played with it a little. I didn't change the lighting because I like the mood.

Added some canvass to the right and took some off the left. Got rid of a couple distractions and did a little work on the shadow on the breast.

Starting with the original and taking a little more time would avoid the telltale signs of manipulation, but this is just to show one of many possible variations of the image.

[Harold Davis]

beautiful bird, gene. sweet job, jim. i like what you did.

[John Wilkerson]

What do you guys think of flipping it where its looking to the left. The eye enters from the left and usually if there are lines or people or, like in this case the bird, looking to the right, the eye tends to travel off the photo. The white feathers are in such contrast with the rest of the photo I don't necessarily think that is the case here since it seems to trap your attention in the white surrounded by the dark colors. Thoughts?

[Gene Herzberg]

I played with it a little. I didn't change the lighting because I like the mood.

Added some canvass to the right and took some off the left. Got rid of a couple distractions and did a little work on the shadow on the breast.

Starting with the original and taking a little more time would avoid the telltale signs of manipulation, but this is just to show one of many possible variations of the image.

Jim:

I really like what you did with my photo! Could you briefly tell me what you did in PS to make the changes.

Thanks

Gene

[Jim Poor]

Sorry, I usually give some details on what I did. Don't know where my head was . . .

I used a combination of the patch tool set to "source" and techniques I learned in Robert O'Tooles APTATS-1 CD (not my techniques to disclose openly here as they are published, proprietary works of another) to remove, replace and blend out the stick coming from the bird's back as well as the oof branch in front.

Once I did that, I used the crop tool to cut from the left and add some blank canvass to the right. Then I used a combinations of clone stamp and more APTATS-1 to expand the BG into the new blank canvass.

I didn't do a great job on the right side as it looks a little blotchy to me, but it should give a good idea on a direction you could take.

I used the patch tool set to source and drew a tight outline around the shadow across the bird's breast. I dragged the outline down just a hair to repair the shadow. I did this in two parts, the brown area and the white area.

If you look close, you'll see that I could have done one more swipe at the shadow for better results. APTATS techniques would work here too, but because of the curve, it was easier for me to use the patch tool.

Finally, I masked the bird to protect it, and used the blur tool to smooth out some of the noise in the BG. Most people will use a noise reduction plug in for that, but I have not sprung for one yet.

Hope this helps.

[Alfred Forns]

John here it is flipped It is actually the same perspective but looks different :confused:

JIm that is one fine work you did with the image I like it big time !!! You deserve a Big Time Congrats on that one !!!! :cool:

[John Wilkerson]

Back in college we were taught how the eye moves through a printed image. Horizontal lines moving through the image, subject looking out of the photo etc all cause you to not view the subject as long as you should if at all. As your eye enters the flipped image you now focus on the birds head and mostly right to the eye rather than the white feathers. We were also taught that the eye tends to go to the brightest, or darkest areas of the print. That is why sometimes bright spots in a background will distract from the subject. Portrait photographers used to always burn in the outer edges, slightly, of a print to keep the eye focused on the persons image. Its been awhile so I cant explain any better sorry. Notice how your eye stops at the stick coming from his back? That acts like an intersection. It breaks the movement across the print. Not that it should be there, just a good example of how lines and shades can influence how we view an image.

[Judd Patterson]

Jim, your repost here is excellent. I definitely agree with your decision to not alter the lighting, as Gene really captured a wonderful mood with the spotlight effect on the chickadee's head. Removing the stick that was directly behind the bird and the shadow on the breast were huge improvement and go a long way to improving the feel of the image.

I can't quite explain the preference, but I like the original right-facing bird a bit more. :D

[Fabs Forns]

J

I can't quite explain the preference, but I like the original right-facing bird a bit more. :D

Eastern way of reading, left to right ;)

Very interesting thread, lots of improvement and idead.

Big welcome, Gene :)

[hal bruce]

Big improvement to a lovely image Jim. Without infringing on anyone's work, playing in PS will very
quickly show you how these patch things work. Or simply use the Clone tool which does much the
same thing. Use a lot of Feather (less hardness) and little Opacity so as not to leave a trace of your work. Trial and error will tell you.
Alfred I think why your version is more pleasing is that eye, as in reading starts from the Left.
(Fabs hit it.) Here starting on the left you come immediately to the head of the bird which is very
pleasing. Also it tapers off to the out of focus tail.
Unflipped, one starts with the out of focus tail and comes eventually to the breast and head & eye.
Not as pleasing subconsciously.
hal

[Nonda Surratt]

Love the light on the bird and the mood.

Really like your fix Jim