Juncoe

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.

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

The bird looks awesome. Since you are at it, why not try and change it to a different perch? :)

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

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?

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.

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. :)