I have a hard time controlling the contrast on these stilts. I know all the information is in the raw file, but I can't process it so that it gives enough contrast to the stilt without making the background too distracting or blowing out either the highlights or the shadows. This is much easier to do when the lighting is straight on, but then I can't seem to get any feather detail in the whites.
Grant, I think this is a very nice image! These guys don't stand still and you got good focus. The water and BG are very pleasing and nicely out of focus, and a great low angle.
I don't remember your processing, but if it's LR / ACR you have quite a bit of leeway with the Shadows + Blacks and Highlights + Whites, all balanced with Exposure, of course. I rarely use the Contrast slider. I import with the Linear Curve -- that will help keep contrast under control. It's always easy to increase it.
After you've gotten what you can in RAW, Nik's Detail Extractor can bring up a little more detail in both blacks and whites. Then you can increase contrast slightly if needed.
But your question was how to get the contrast you want in just the stilt and not the BG -- that might be a case for double-processing. Layer a file with a softer (lower contrast) BG and one with the bird to your liking, and mask. Or it might be easier to process for the bird and then mask the BG and lower its contrast. (Blurring a BG is a challenge because it will spill over the selection boundary, but contrast isn't so difficult.)
There is a sort of selection brush in LR / ACR but most people choose do do all but the most basic local adjustments in PS where you have more flexibility. In this case it would be fairly successful to select the dark grasses on the right with a large soft brush and reduce contrast in that area, but for a busier BG you would need to do some sort of selection of the bird. Masks are so flexible, though, and a wonderful tool.
Selecting the bird is often easy with the Quick Selection tool in PS, with the edges tweaked by hitting the Q key to go into quick mask mode and then using the brush. (Toggle Q to go back to the selection.) Or Topaz ReMask does an excellent job of isolating a subject.
Last edited by Diane Miller; 04-13-2014 at 10:03 AM.
Grant, this is a really nice capture! As Diane noted-a little bit of local work on the bird is all that's left to do. I'd lean towards the brushes in LR to brighten the eye and work the blacks ever so slightly-probably with shadows and clarity sliders. Again-a solid capture with good field technique. Look forward to seeing more!
Controlling Contrast-Black Necked Stilt
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