Peek a Boo Koala

[Don Railton]

Hi Guys

This image has troubled me since I took it and I am looking for help and opinions on what to do with it. The problem is I think the blocky patten in the bark is a very busy BG that detracts from this otherwise very cute image IMHO... My question is, do you agree, and if you do, what do you think would be the best fix?? I have played around with Vignettes, lighter and darker Bg's, but never been really happy with any of the results. I even went back to the park again today to reshoot it but they seemed to be very sleepy today and in two hours of waiting there was only about 5 minutes of action worth shooting... This image is full frame, I have tried cropped from the top and left to remove some of the OOF branch LHS and while that is my prefered crop I choose to post full frame to show all I had to work with.

1/500sec at F9, ISO1600. 1D4 & 500F4 sitting on wimberley Head and 5 series Gitzo.. Processing was simply setting levels etc in ACR and mainly dealing with the white collar around the neck. Then a bit of Nik detail extractor in the same neck area and Nik selective sharpening.

regards to you all,

DON

[Steve Canuel]

Don,
I often run into this problem with some of the animals I shoot, specifically marmots on granite boulders and great horned owls in ponderosa pines. Both surfaces are very contrasty and susceptible to looking overly crispy when sharpened. I usually deal with it by making a layer then running a gaussian blur. I reduce the opacity to a point that's acceptable to me while still trying to retain some of the detail and texture of the rock/bark, then erase away the blur entirely from the animal. May or may not work for your needs.

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Don i like the idea behind the shot very much , Think the colors are great but the overall image is a tad too dark for my taste.
I think only working on ACR does not help , this where PS comes into play …… and some time to invest (layers , masks , blend modes and D&B )
My suggestion and first thought would be just reduce the overall contrast in FG and BKG and then push the Koala to stand out of it.It could be a lot trial and error but i think it is worth the effort.
Nice one , Don.
TFS Andeas

[Don Railton]

Hi Steve and Andreas

Thanks for responding. I have not tried any blurs, but I like the concept and will give it a try. Its going to make the BG look OOF which will look more natural that pushing its brightness in any direction.. Thanks Steve

Andreas, Thank you for the kind words. I also like your idea of reducing the contrast initially then focusing my efforts on the koala. That's a new approach to me so I will have a play and see what I find that appeals.

regards

DON

[Nancy Bell]

Very cute pose on the koala and worth working with the image. You could process the image twice in ACR. Once for the koala and once for the tree. For the tree you could try reducing clarity as one adjustment. Then in PS, mask out either bkgd or koala and erase that part of the layer you do not want (such as the koala with reduced clarity).

[Don Railton]

Hi Nancy. I started playing around with Andreas idea last night and like what was happening although I did not get to finish it. I like your idea too and plan to play with all three ideas to expand my knowledge in processing. Thank you again for your comments.

Don


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Don Railton]

Hi Guys

I have had a brief play with my interpretation of the three methods suggested above. The short answer is I like them all, by that I mean I think I could end up with an image I would be a lot happier with using any of the approaches, so thanks again Steve, Andreas and Nancy for your help. IMHO,Steves is the quickest, while I think Nancys approach gives the most flexibility closely followed by Andreas approach. The RP is using Andreas approach but I was happy with all results really. I possibly could have gone more muted on the bark but I played conservative. In the limit though the need to accurately mask out the Koala is required in all and in this particular instance the block pattern bark with the fur overlay is a little tricky/ time consuming. Thanks for your help guys. In the RP I have cropped a little from the top and the left.

DON

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hey Don , there are all the time many ways to get to the final result. Some are quicker ,some are more complex in the end it must just fits your needs and expectations .

BTW now it is looking to go into the right direction , i really love this shot and worth to invest some PP work .And there is always room to make it better , even if it is only slightly can make a difference .

TFS Andreas

[Don Railton]

Thanks Andreas, I plan to keep working on it...Rushed something though to provide feedback to the helpers..

regards

DON

[Gabriela Plesea]

Hello Don,
Sorry to come in so late, I was convinced I passed a comment here and it looks like I didn't; I tend to look at images on the laptop while at work and then revisit when at home in the evenings.

The RP above is a great improvement, suddenly the Koala pops against the tree and the colours of its fur (these beautiful grey and warm browns) are more noticeable, this is one super capture with the subject peeping at the photographer while enjoying the safety of the tree, love the eye contact there.

Just a last thought I had now while writing to you: since the subject blends so well with its surroundings, this is one image that emphasizes its capability of using the environment for camouflage, and therefore one should not really mind that the Koala is a bit "lost" against the tree. To me this is one brilliant behavioural shot and I would not try too hard to change the colours and textures of the environment/tree. Lifting the darks to get more detail is great, yet I would not go too far with PP work to make the Koala stand out too much, I love the fact that he is hiding so well

Great work Don, I really enjoyed viewing this, thank you for this post!

Kind regards,

[Don Railton]

Hi Gabriela, thank your for the kind comments. The 'trouble' as I described it was trying to present the tree and koala in a way that the tree still looked like a tree but did not dominate the image with the strong block pattern. I tried and quickly discarded lightening and darkening the tree because it looked fake, and vignettes I dislike as I think they show a hint of desperation. I never thought of using the blur so wisely suggested in this forum. So I agree that the koala belongs in the tree, and as such I shouldn't worry too much about them blending, I guess it was just the photographer in me wanting to balance the elements of the image and I could not see how to do it., and the help in this forum rocks....!

Best regards

Don


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[edwardselfe]

Nice work - the RP is much better IMO. I would consider using clarity to reduce the crispness and texture of the bark, and I think you could get away with a bit more sharpening on the koala.
Ed