Processing Little Grebe

[dankearl]

Randy Stout has asked me to explain the processing of the Little Grebe photo I posted last evening.
Here goes.
This is the original image out of camera.

002_1185ooc.jpg

I took the photo in ACR and slid the highlight slide to 0, then took the exposure down until the background was basically black.
Here is the result.

002_1185dk.jpg

I took this image into PS6, masked the bird, brought it back to the original exposure and then some, worked on it, sharpening, color, spot erased some things like the feather, leveled, etc.
Used Topaz de-noise on the BG, saved to Tiff.
Opened in NX2, worked a bit on the bird (Spot lightening, sharpness, darkened the BG a tad more, saved to a web size and posted.
It actually only took me about 10 minutes.
Here is the final photo.


002_1185bp.jpg

[Paul Click]

Nicely done. Can you explain your masking technique?