We get kookaburras regularly visiting in our garden. This one is in the liquidamber tree at the front of our home. I can see this from my office window. They love to watch if we've been mowing or digging in the garden just in case there are any tasty worms or witchety grubs unearthed.
Nice shot! I love the environment -- it's very artistic. I wouldn't mind seeing a little more of it, if this is a crop, although there may be areas you cropped out that are distracting. Nature often doesn't cooperate.
It looks from the specs as though you had low light -- the softness is good but it can challenge an image for tack-sharpness. Looks like you struck a good compromise.
For an image like this with the face a bit dark, I'll often brush a quick mask across it (soft-edged brush) and use that selection to mask a Curve adjustment layer and bring up some lightness and contrast. If that's a new technique for anyone, there is a sticky here, "Making Local Adjustments..."
On second thought, with only part of the bird showing, a tight composition may be the best choice. Would love to see more shots using this tree as your studio!
Thanks Diane. The mask you talked about, I have no idea what that is, sorry. I use Adobe Lightroom but only for balance, and brightening, and occasional crops. I don't believe I cropped this one, I wanted to get in nice and close. And yes, the light was low.
Masking is a Photoshop thing -- a way to hide part of an adjustment or pixel layer to let what is below show through. Explained (I hope) in the sticky.
You can do a similar thing in Lightroom with the Adjustment Brush, and there are a lot of great adjustments there besides the ones you mentioned, and a number of programs that will work in conjunction with it, as plug-ins, such as the Nik filters. It does go a long way toward making Photoshop more of an option for many "straight" images.
Hi Kathie, Welcome and thanks for sharing this image. Is it a young bird? Great job by Diane lightening the face. BTW, Photoshop rocks :).
Do you get many different birds in your tree? With all those branches going tight was a good idea.
BIRDS AS ART Blog: great info and lessons, lots of images with our legendary BAA educational Captions; we will not sell you junk. 30+ years of long lens experience/e-mail with gear questions.
BIRDS AS ART Online Store: we will not sell you junk. 35 years of long lens experience. Please e-mail with gear questions.
Check out the new SONY e-Guide and videos that I did with Patrick Sparkman here. Ten percent discount for BPN members,
Come for a visit
Posting Permissions
