HUMINGBIRD CLOSEUP

[Christopher Marek]

Camera Model: Canon EOS 30D
Date/Time: 2010:08:29 10:18:51
Shutter speed: 1/250 sec
Aperture: 18
Exposure mode: Manual
Metering mode: Spot
ISO: 100
Lens: EF180mm f/3.5L Macro USM
Focal length: 180mm
AF mode: Manual Focus

3 VIVITAR 252 flash at full power, one flash dedicated to background

[Randy Stout]

Chris:

Excellent timing, nice full up pose, colorful flower.

I think it could stand a bit more sharpening on the eye/head.

I always try to make my flash pictures as subtle as possible. I have toned down some of the highlights, darkened and reduced the reflection on the flower.

You can do much better on the raw file.

Cheers

Randy

[Christopher Marek]

Chris:

Excellent timing, nice full up pose, colorful flower.

I think it could stand a bit more sharpening on the eye/head.

I always try to make my flash pictures as subtle as possible. I have toned down some of the highlights, darkened and reduced the reflection on the flower.

You can do much better on the raw file.

Cheers

Randy
Hey thanks Randy

I always appreciate it when somebody takes the time to make their own improvements to my images. Also, amazed you decided it needed more sharppening! I actually did no sharpenning because I thought it was already sharp enough. Good catch that you noticed!.

I do wonder how you were able to do such a nice edit to the flower without it affecting the rest of the image, or causing the flower to look manipulated. Care to share or is it too involved?

[Randy Stout]

Chris:

I did a high light selection on the entire image 1st.

To do this, I opened the image in CS5, opened the channels palette, clicked on the RGB option while holding down the option key. This gives you a selection of the highlights. I then went back to the layers palette, clicked on command + J, which gave me a layer with the highlights selected. I then changed the blend mode to multiply, and adjusted to taste. This isn't an original tech. by me. I know that Robert Amoruso has described this tech on BPN, and perhaps others too.

The flower was given some additional treatment. I used the quick select tool from the tool palette, which works well when there is a distinct separation of an object from the surrounding area. I made a careful selection of only the red, and then added a layer mask to a separate layer, so that I had a mask which would only effect the red flower. I then played around with different blend modes, and actually did a second multiply blend on the flower. I also made another layer with the same mask and tweaked the saturation a bit lower.

It takes longer to tell about it than to do it. Let me know if you need more detail.

I use flash a fair amount, but hate the obvious flashed look, so am always tweaking my images to reduce that look. Keep the good, try to mitigate the bad.

Cheers

Randy

[Ian McHenry]

Really like the wings up image.
Randy's edit is first rate and really warms up the image.
Editing details are way over my head but the point about reducing the "flash taken" look are well worth remembering.
Cheers: Ian Mc