For sure. Not only is it obtrusive, but I almost get the feeling the twig is gonna whap
the poor little guy on the head :)
To get him out of the center, you might also think about cropping off some of the left,
about where the OOF branch is. Then work on the remaining OOF horizontal branch crossing
in front. Then see what you have after that.
Hi Joaquin, if it was me, I would move on to be honest and put your valuable time into shooting more in a better position. The reason I say that is two fold: one is it will take you a lot of time to try and resolve the image, plus, the main issue you have is the fine light 'strands' of the plumage hitting the dark areas, it will never look clean and because it's so fine you will notice it easily, even at this size, but probably better when working on the RAW. Obviously this is working on a web image so it compounds the IQ, but this may illustrate my points. Just for quickness I sampled a bit of BKG to drop the image back onto, so it parts it's not a great marriage of colours, but hopefully you can see where I'm going.
cheers
Steve
Post Production: It’s ALL about what you do with the tools and not, which brand of tool you use.
Steve thank you for your reply. I understand what you are telling me. I am trying to improve my photoshop skills. How did you isolate the little feather strands? I understand that the color is not a match but I am interested in learning which technique you used and why you chose that particular technique. Again thank you for your help.
Joaquin
Hi Joaquin,
I'm not sure if I can explain it correctly but here goes. What I might try (not sure how natural it may look) is to create 2 additional layers in PS - one would be for you to isolate the feathers by a selection method of your choice - perhaps quick selection tool used while viewing at high magnification. This won't be perfect but you can refine this selection by choosing "refine edge" within the "select" menu option in photoshop. Once you have a good selection you may want to "contract" the selection by a pixel or so as to eliminate any BG. I would then put this selection on its own layer above the second layer you created. Now with only the second layer active and visible, I would paint in additional background covering the bird feather strands. When the top layer of your previous selection of feathers is active and above this background layer, you may have a decent look (or maybe not depending on how you "feathered" the selection of the feathers). There may be other ways to create a decent selection of these strands, by using channels and luminosity, but I'd have to play around a bit.
I agree with Steve that there is a lot of work here - not just what you're asking about, but with the foreground OOF branch too. But it may be fun to practice on! I really like the pose of the bird with its feathers flared out! Good luck, I hope I was clear enough…
Regards,
Kevin
Selecting those tiny feathers will be a major chore. A technique that can work well in similar cases is to set the clone tool to Lighten mode (or Darken in the opposite case) and see if the clone source is of a different enough tonality to remove the darker areas and leave the feathers. In this case it didn't work as the BG is too close to the color of the feathers. But sometimes it can be a good technique, with no need to select anything.
OK Joaquin, I will point you in the right direction, but you need to find your own feet on this, as it's a great way to learn. If I write in paragraphs exactly what to do, a) that would take some time, b) I don't think people learn and then you just stick to the 'recipe' which is not ideal, as each image requires different percentages of tweaks.
Kevin was on the right track about the Refine tool, firstly use the quick selection tool and paint quickly over the area, this will select it. If you go over an area you can + or - that selection to select or deselect, don't worry that you are not too specific, but be sensible as you paint over the area required.
Now activate the Refine tool, when the window pops up, click on the B/W selection, check the Smart Radius then adjust the slider, move it hard to see what happens. You will then see what to gauge the setting to be that gives you what you want.
Change the view back to Overlay and use the blush to go over areas you need to select or deselect, easily seen.
Once you have it looking right, use the Output options, I like New layer with mask, this negates duplicating layers. You can then make fine adjustments once back in the Layers palette via the mask.
Job done.
Please note that in an ideal world you need to running the latest CS6 or CC to get the best options and the latest refinements.
Good luck.
Steve
Post Production: It’s ALL about what you do with the tools and not, which brand of tool you use.
That could work, with enough finesse in the refinement. Another possible approach is Topaz ReMask, which can be quite remarkable for things like wind-blown hair. But it does have limits with the finest detail, when you are approaching the sensor resolution. It isn't intuitive but they have a good online tutorial.
What would you do?
Joaquin Barbará thanked for this post
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