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Thread: Happy New Year and a tip for backgrounds

  1. #1
    BPN Member Tony Whitehead's Avatar
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    Default Happy New Year and a tip for backgrounds

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    Happy New Year to the whole BPN community.
    As some of you know, my work has got in the way of my BPN involvement for some time. During the Christmas/New year season I have had a little time to catch up on some image processing and while working on some images of small birds at an African waterhole with a messy surface and found that using Nik Color Efex Pro4 Tonal Contrast to apply negative contrast to the background went a long way to cleaning things up and saved a lot of time. I am sure I am not the first to discover this but I can't find any mention of it on a quick search so have added a brief post on my blog outlining it - Tonal Contrast to smooth backgrounds I would love some feedback and thoughts on this.
    This image of a Black-faced Waxbill taken with Nikon D800, Nikon 500VR, ISO1600, 1/500 f8, Fill flash-1.3, Monopod


    Last edited by Peter Kes; 01-01-2013 at 08:45 PM.
    Tony Whitehead
    Visit my blog at WildLight Photography for latest news and images.

  2. #2
    BPN Member Bill Dix's Avatar
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    A lovely image, Tony. Great pose and comp. And a very helpful tip -- Thank you. I'm wondering if you considered toning down the bg here even further to reduce the effect of the white areas?

    A very Happy New Year to you.

  3. #3
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    Happy New Year to you as well. Great image, love the detail in the bird and the environment. thanks for the tips.

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    Lifetime Member gail bisson's Avatar
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    Hi Tony,
    Nice image.
    I like the pose of the bird and the IQ.
    What an unusual perch!
    Getting lower would solve a lot of the BG problems as well but realize this may not have been possible.
    I will try your tip with tonal contrast-thanks for the link,
    Gail

  5. #5
    Lifetime Member Stu Bowie's Avatar
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    Hi Tony, great to see you posting again, and what a lovely looking Waxbill. The detail and colours look good, and I quite like this eye level perspective. Was this taken on the farm up north during your trip in June.

    Wishing you all the very best for 2013 too.

    Thanks for the tip. We were at Marievale this morning - great action.
    Last edited by Stu Bowie; 01-01-2013 at 10:24 AM.

  6. #6
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    Very nicely done Tony! I'm taking a look at your post, as it's something I've never thought about doing.

  7. #7
    BPN Member Tony Whitehead's Avatar
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    Thanks for the comments and suggestions everyone. Yes, Stu, this was up on the farm in June. Gail, a lower angle is usually a good option but in this location it doesn't work as it is a small waterhole in a hollow so getting lower brings the far edge into play and a dark band to the top of the image. I did tone down the BG in Viveza a bit, Bill. The brighter area is sky reflection coming down between to 2 bushes and the pale areas on the water are algal rafts like the one caught at the base of the perch.
    Tony Whitehead
    Visit my blog at WildLight Photography for latest news and images.

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