This is a image I have a love/hate relationship with, I have a couple/few of these type but I can only post 1 image a day, but I will start with this one and do the other one tomorrow. I love the bird and the pose and the perch is fine, but the BG is so plain it looks fake. All it is just grass, it has no texture to bring out in anyway, to help.
To me, I took this bird and copy/pasted it onto that background.
I love the background, makes the bird pop. Everything is nice and sharp.
The only thing I'm not sure of, and we'll see what the others think, is the bird's
left eye. I'd rather have it the bird's head angle turned just a teeny weeny bit
more to the left (bird's left) so it would've been hidden. I'd rather see the whole
eye or not at all...but that's just the perfectionist in me :)
Hi Michael- Nice "messy" male American Goldfinch. Some people would "die" for backgrounds like this! There are a variety of ways to add some texture. A simple way as I have done here is to first mask out the subject and perch to protect them, then dodge and burn the BG using a soft brush set to Midtones with a low exposure (e.g., 15%) to make the effect subtle, and set to varying sizes. This is just quick and dirty but you get the effect.
The main issue with the image is that it is far too heavily sharpened. There almost seems to be a look of some sort of Photoshop artistic filter being used although I'm sure you haven't. First, was it a heavy crop? Second, what is your sharpening method and technical numbers?
LOL, Yeah a real messy BG! LOL I see what you did and read what you did, but putting into action is another thing. LOL
I have not been doing RAW/PP very long, I used to shoot straight JPEG. Now, I go in and start and play with tools to try and learn, been gleaning info from here for about 6-8 months and other places I can find, but always come back here to pick up things. I never intended on shooting birds but it happened and I like it so I am trying to learn all I can. I feel I have "read" all I need, now I need to put it into "action" and get "re-action" and hopefully gain some help to do better.
So some of the things you ask, you may need to ask me like a 5 year old. LOL Just kidding, I have no idea where the numbers would be now as I delete my XMPs after I save my images in JPEG. No reason for me to keep them and such, just a hobby, to have some fun and keep active. ;) I never plan on selling anything, even if I made one decent enough that someone wanted to buy, all they would have to do is ask and I would give it to them.
You may be right about the over sharpening, some like it some don't, but from my eyes, I like everything but the BG, it just seems off a little to me. I know I could crop it differently and do some things differently, just need to learn how and wanted others opinion on it.
Oops, almost forgot, it was only cropped about 20-30% if I recall correctly. I am/was pretty close, but please do not ask me how many feet/meters. LOL I was about (stretching my arms out wide) this far! LOL I have never been good at guessing distances like that, guess that is why I never took up golf! LOL
Oh and one last thing: I do believe this is a "Female" American Goldfinch, the males have the Black cap. ;) Not trying to correct you, but that is what I read when I researched it and I have a Male AGF I posted a couple days ago. ;)
Hi Michael- By "messy" I was referring to the bird. It's a moulting male American Goldfinch, that's why it's messy and that's why it's making you think it's a female. Note the black feathers in the cap just coming in and the yellow feathers on the back. The really black wing feathers of the male have already come in. I've attached another male which is a bit more advanced in the moult than yours.
What I meant by the "technical numbers" for sharpening is the numbers associated with the method you used for sharpening. For example if you used Unsharp Mask in Photoshop then the three important numbers are Amount, Radius and Threshold. If you pixel-peep your image, which we do for diagnostic purposes, you will see strong halos at edges, which give a "crunchy" look-- hard to describe.
Re. the BG, have a play with the Dodge and Burn tools in your processing software- practise is the secret.
Hi Michael , Lovely Photograph . A couple of things to add ,I agree the shot looks a bit on the crispy side...(Too much sharpening for my taste ) . You can look at your exif data most times and get a good amount of info ,like distances, camera settings , even shutter counts . (This computer doesn't have opanda ,or I would tell you the distance ...)
...I have as of yet ,not won a dispute about birds when John is involved, LOL! there have not been many ,but ,He does have My respect ...If you know what I mean. LOL . I have searched the web for the best forum possible regarding training and Bird photography , THIS IS ,the best......The People make the deference ,they have the knowledge and experience ,with a willingness to share both !
Hi Clyde and Tank you for the C+C and the welcome!
I have no problem with anything he said, I am just not up on it and its all new to as far as C+C, my only audience has been my children and grandson and I think they may be a little biased. LOL
I am still trying to learn the terms/language and things like BG and so on, but I really do appreciate the help and come here to get that and to get better.
Hi Michael...I see what you mean about the bg just looking a bit fake....John's method works well for correction. Curious...what was the bg that gave you such a smooth green. It does look oversharpened in places to me esp the perch, beak and black tail feathers. Overall a very nice photo! TFS
It is just grass, short grass, taken early spring, the perch is only about 3-4' off the ground and it kind of slants, upward in the bg. After being here a little while, posting and such I feel I may have over-did it on the NR and as you see/say, over Sharpened it.
I have been working on a better filing system so I can go back and find original files and re-work and re-post them as other do. I delete a lot of RAW files as I do not have much space, I am looking to get a 1TB hard drive for my computer to help me with more space to be able store more.
American Goldfinch Female
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