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Bald Cardinal
Canon EOS 1D and Canon 400/5.6
1/200 @ f5.6 Aperture Priority +1/3
Noise Reduction on the background; Unsharp Mask on the bird; No crop
I moved my setup and took a few shots tonight. I'm not satisfied with the background and need to do some rearranging but ended up getting a shot of this unique bird. Is there a way to clean up this background? I tried the clone tool but it comes out looking fake.
About the bird. Has anyone ever seen a bald cardinal? From what I've read it seems to be a molting issue that some individuals have. Instead of loosing a few feathers at a time they go entirely bald.
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Avian Moderator
Matt:
You can see the reptile/dinosaur roots of birds here!
One of the tricks to using a low percentage clone stamp. Daniel C usually starts with about 30%, and I am often in that area, move it around a lot to blend the edges.
Practice for a while and you will get very good at it. I also change the size of the stamp to fit the need.
Cheers
Randy
MY BPN ALBUMS
"Tact is the art of making a point without making an enemy" Sir Isaac Newton
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Thanks Randy, I was using 100% opacity brush. I'll give 30 a try.
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Randy is right, about 30% for cloning is the key. You might mask the bird first so you are only working on the background. Love the uniqued photo - the bald cardinal. We do not have cardinals here so never have seen one but I have seen bald mountain blue birds.
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Not the most attractive bird on the block, but stunning light and fine detail...I don't have any problem with the background, more than acceptable, my only though would be a little more dof to get the tail sharp as well
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Matt - give this a shot:
- make a new blank layer and choose a very soft brush at <10% opacity.
- Hold down the alt/opt key and select an area in the background that corresponds to the nice greens
- paint the background with the brush. Don't be afraid to overdo it with multiple strokes, you can always lower the opacity of the layer.
Let me know if you give that a try. I like this technique to "blend" the background a bit. It's simple and effective.
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I tried the 30% opacity on the clone stamp and I"m much happier with the results. I don't think I'm supposed to post more than one picture to a thread so if you would like to see it check here.
Thank you Randy and Laurie for the help.
Phil - you mentioned you didn't mind the background. I'd be curious to know if you think the new version is an improvement.
Miguel - I ended up being happy with the low opacity clone tool so I didn't use your method but I may give it a try later just to see how it compares.
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Matt,
I think you did a great job with the cloning technique. I may not have totally replaced the other background colors with green, just softened them - but that is just one option.
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Matt, you can post a "repost" by using "go advanced". I'm glad birds have feathers, they look so much better than bald 
!
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