I was in the backyard this evening and was desperate to photograph some birds. The light was low so I cranked the ISO up to 3200 and had to use manual focus with my 300 f4L + 2xTC. This image of a Juncoe at the feeder was very noisy and my attempt to improve it with Lightroom and new NIK software (that I don't know how to use yet) created some wild textures. I took it into PSE, cloned and smoothed the BG, then applied the dry brush filter.
03-02-2010, 10:43 PM
Gerry Sibell
Very nicely done, Julie. I don't think you could have painted it any better; I know I couldn't!
I do like the circular swirls in the BG. Plus the yellow around the bird makes it look as though it's back lit or has rim lighting.
Gerry
03-03-2010, 12:24 AM
Fabs Forns
The bird looks awesome. Since you are at it, why not try and change it to a different perch? :)
03-03-2010, 06:00 AM
Julie Brown
Thanks Gerry and Fabs.
The circular swirls are the patterns in the fence that was brought out by Viveza. It is a shadowbox fence and I had to get rid of a dark line that ran through the bird's tail-otherwise the swirls would be all over the BG.:)
Fabs-now that will be a challenging project for me-but I will give it a try! :D
03-03-2010, 08:02 AM
denise ippolito
Julie, I wish the Junco was turned just a tiny bit more towards you. Nice painted effect. Just some clean up around the bird. Nice work w/ the Nik software and you will love the program. Did you get the entire Suite or just the Vivesa?
03-03-2010, 09:04 AM
Dave Woeller
Juli, nice effect you have achieved here, and i agree it does have a painted effect. I haven't ventured into the nik suite yet, but this may push me along. Thanks for sharing.
03-03-2010, 11:05 AM
Julie Brown
Thanks Dave. It looked pretty interesting before I applied the filter. From what I have seen from other posts-there is a lot to work with in the Viveza program.
Denise, I wish the bird was turned toward me as well. :) Remembering what you have said on previous posts, I did a little bit of clean up-but didn't want to smudge the bird.
I got the complete collection for Lightroom, but haven't watched the video tutorials yet-just dipped my toe into it. :)