Saving and image....

I will use this photo (of a Song Sparow), as and example for all you photographers like me, who keep a list of all birds photographed. I travel all over North America, trying to fulfil my goal of photographing every bird in North America. Sometimes, you only get one chance, at some of these birds. Using photoshop, you can sometimes save an otherwise useless photo. By cloning, copying, flipping horizontal or vertical, and pasting....I was able to remove branch from in front of the sparrow and using left claws rebuild the right side, and fill in left wing. Making it a passable photo..not great but passable. It takes a lot of time but do a bit each time, save it and you will enjoy the results as you learn.

Paul, I think it is wonderful that you care enough to take the time to do this! The best part is that you're so good at it that you really can't tell where you've worked and that's really saying something. My next suggestion would be to try to lift a little detail back into the bottom left side of the bird where the shadow lies. You might try playing with it in camera raw and doing a little recovery or using the levels slider to open up the midtones a bit.

You did a great job, Paul, and I know exactly what you mean by trying to save certain photos that didn't quite turn out the way you'd hoped. I'm going to post one of those myself here in a minute! I agree with Julie about seeing if you can pull out a little more detail from the dark areas; but if not, hey, you still have a decent record of this bird. Maybe you'll have another chance sometime, I hope so!

Thanks for your post, Paul. I am still learning to think in "digital" terms, but it's starting to sink in. I have a couple of photos in mind that I might try my hand at saving. Your work in removing the front branch is great.

Amy