Barn Owl - My First Image in PS CS6

[Loi Nguyen]

Hi Everyone,

I've been pretty behind in PP skills. I had a 3-hr flight today and a new copy of PS6, so I cracked it open and tried it here. This image was taken in early Jan, but has not been posted here.

1DX
500f4 II + 1.4X III
1/8000
f5.6
ISO-1000
Evaluative Metering at 0 bias
AV mode
Tripod
Cropped about 20% of W, 20% H
Cloned out 2 strands of barbed wires

I wish I had dropped my ISO to 400, but I was too excited to check and then he took off.

I had Artie's Digital Basics as a guide, but I have not learned all of the steps yet, Would appreciate your comments on my first attempt here

Thank you!

Loi

[arash_hazeghi]

nice details, plumage looks a bit dark and too "rusty" for a barn owl but maybe local variation. Details are good, I wish for a better near wing position. the BG is a bit noisy.

[David Salem]

Very nice Loi. The owl looks plenty sharp and exposed well too. Nice pose and I like the sharp face and eye. Great in flight shot and one of your best posts to date. Well done

[Mike Veltri]

Very nice Loi.

[PhilCook]

Stunner Loi, sharp and the bird is in great focus as well as such a smooth backdrop, I do like to the look of concentration on it's face

[Jonathan Ashton]

Well it certainly answers a query I had, i.e. is the facial disc going to show detail in flight... it does so my images need to be a good deal sharper, I note your very fast shutter speed, pretty much a dream for us in UK using a 7D!!
You appear to have good detail in the plumage but I wonder if the contrast is too high - the browns look pretty dark compared to our barn owls, I know there is variation worldwide.

[Jeannean Ryman]

Looks good to me Loi! My only suggestion would be to use a bit of blur on the weeds underneath the wing to the right of the frame, to make them a little less distracting. Very nice job.

[gail bisson]

Really nice Loi.
I would do a bit of NR on the BG.
IQ is excellent and you had nice light.
My only wish: that the near wing was in a better position but still an awesome shot,
Gail

[Marina Scarr]

Great light and exposure. Agree on NR on the BG only.

[Jim Crosswell]

I like the flight angle, sharpness, details and clean BG. Another vote for more NR on the BG. Well done Loi.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Beautiful image Loi. I do agree with the near wing position and the NR to the BG...and I would also tone down the grasses in LRC (and especially the one touching the wing). Your image has high appeal factor, great colours, beautiful green BG. I've started to use CS6 the last few months too and found the algorithms much better for many of the tools, much better control.

[Satish Ranadive]

Beautiful flight pose of barn owl.Agree with above comments about BG and color.Very nicely composed.Nice PP work.

Regards,
Satish.

[Sidharth Kodikal]

Hi Loi, you've received some great feedback already. Perfect bird placement, excellent pose and killer BG. All in all this is very successful image!

[Cheryl Arena Molennor]

Love the light and the pose works for me too. NR on Bg already noted

[Loi Nguyen]

Thank you everyone for your great comments. I have tried, but failed miserably trying to select the bird and put it in a new layer. This has to wait for another day. Any tip for a newbie to PS here? The lasso tool seems so complicated and the quick tool does not see to do a good job here. How do you folks do it so effortlessly?

[arash_hazeghi]

Thank you everyone for your great comments. I have tried, but failed miserably trying to select the bird and put it in a new layer. This has to wait for another day. Any tip for a newbie to PS here? The lasso tool seems so complicated and the quick tool does not see to do a good job here. How do you folks do it so effortlessly?

you have to use the lasso tool or magic selection brush. use magic brush first then lasso to refine. you need a good mouse (can't do it on a touchpad or something like that)

there is no "effortless" way

[PhilCook]

Thank you everyone for your great comments. I have tried, but failed miserably trying to select the bird and put it in a new layer. This has to wait for another day. Any tip for a newbie to PS here? The lasso tool seems so complicated and the quick tool does not see to do a good job here. How do you folks do it so effortlessly?

probably the best way to do selective adjustments is to use a masking layer in PS, still requires some patience and mouse/pen control but it's accurate.....what editing program you use will determine how a mask is activated, plenty of tutorials if you google search

[Loi Nguyen]

Hi Everyone:

So, I finally made my first layer mask selection using the Quick Selection Tool, not perfect in the primary feather area, but it is a start, and applied the NR steps in Arash's NR Guide. I also used the Clone Stamp to clone out some of the distracting branches on the lower right corner, but left just a hint of the branches. Love to hear your comments and feedback on the resulting image!

Thank you

Loi

[Jonathan Ashton]

Loi the image appears to be over sharpened i.e. the plumage has a refractile appearance. I have modifies your original but if you go back to the raw I am sure you will be able to make a much better job.
I lightened the dark plumage and I added just a tad more sharpening to the facial disc.