Harlequin

[Carolyn Arnesen]

I like the colors in this image, the colors on the bird and on the algae covered rocks below the surface of the water. I don't believe a lower perspective would have improved this image as it would have changed the way the water filtered the light.

I increased contrast, added some vibrance to and sharpened the bird, and increased the contrast on the BG. The image is HH, cropped for comp., man exp., 1/800, 6.3, spot met, ISO 500

C & C welcome.

[Doug West]

I love the perspective also, and you're right, getting low here would've killed the reflections.
I also liked how you cropped it, leaving more room to the right because of the head turn.

Have you tried darkening just the water a teeny bit to see if you could get even more of
the color/reflection from the water? I only bring it up cause when I can, I like having my
background just a shade darker than the bird to make it pop a little more.

Doug

[Warren Spreng]

Lovely colors Carolyn, love the HP. I agree with Doug's comment about darkening the water a little. My eye keeps being drawn to the shimmering water away from the duck.

[Carolyn Arnesen]

Thanks, Doug and Warren. Doug, I tried darkening the water some. I'm not sure I succeeded in making the bird stand out more, but the background colors deepened.

[Diane Miller]

Nice catch! I agree you chose the right shooting angle. The water is lovely, but it does compete with the duck a little, even moreso in the repost. How did you darken the water? More than darkened, the main difference is that is has more contrast in the RP, and the bird has less.

What was the camera and lens, the focal length, and how much crop? What was the processing?

[Doug West]

Maybe its just my eyes, but it looks to me the repost is brighter?

I didn't mention it earlier, but in case you're not, keep your duck and
background on a different layer. This way when you play with the water,
only that is affected, not the duck.

Doug

[Carolyn Arnesen]

Nice catch! I agree you chose the right shooting angle. The water is lovely, but it does compete with the duck a little, even moreso in the repost. How did you darken the water? More than darkened, the main difference is that is has more contrast in the RP, and the bird has less.

What was the camera and lens, the focal length, and how much crop? What was the processing?

Thanks, Diane. My PP skills are limited and need updating, so I'm sure there are better ways to change the BG. I started from scratch in the RP in Bridge, double clicked on the image and was going to use the sliders but instead opened a copy of the image in PS, selected the bird, made adjustments - levels, increased contrast some and sharpening. I then selected inverse and used auto tone on the BG. It did brighten the BG colors which looked good to me at the time, but the more I look at the image here, the more I see the BG overpowering the bird in the RP. What method would you use to darken the background?

Camera used is EOS 7D, focal length 420 (EF300 f/4 + 1.4x), image is about 80% of FF. (Is there a way in PS to measure % of crop?)

Thanks for any advice.

[Warren Spreng]

Thanks, Diane. My PP skills are limited and need updating, so I'm sure there are better ways to change the BG. I started from scratch in the RP in Bridge, double clicked on the image and was going to use the sliders but instead opened a copy of the image in PS, selected the bird, made adjustments - levels, increased contrast some and sharpening. I then selected inverse and used auto tone on the BG. It did brighten the BG colors which looked good to me at the time, but the more I look at the image here, the more I see the BG overpowering the bird in the RP. What method would you use to darken the background?

Camera used is EOS 7D, focal length 420 (EF300 f/4 + 1.4x), image is about 80% of FF. (Is there a way in PS to measure % of crop?)

Thanks for any advice.

Hi Carolyn, I hope you don't mind but I wanted to see if I could make the adjustments I was thinking of. In PS CC I used Select/Color Range and I selected the brightest areas of the water. Expanded the selection by 5 pixels and then feathered by 3. In Levels I simply raised the black point up a tad, and then I added a mild gaussian blur. (I made sure to deselect any area on the duck and I adjusted the "fuzziness" slider to get all of the areas I wanted) I did the same for the very Green areas of the water and then I dropped the vibrance just a tad and also added a mild gaussian blur and this is what I came up with. I believe it still leaves the effect of the water but I think the duck now pops a bit more in the image. (of course it messes up your signature!)

[Diane Miller]

Very nice, Warren! And good methods.

Carolyn, always good to start over with the raw file, but I'd never just open it straight into PS without first making sure you can't tweak things a little better (usually it's a lot better) with the raw adjustment sliders. PS can do wonders, but the raw converter can do much more with tonalities. A raw file isn't an image file, just a bunch of data off the sensor, and it needs some parameters defined in order to display as an image file. Those parameters are represented by the adjustments in the various raw converters, and are only a generic interpretation. There is an Auto adjustment, but it can be a disaster. I'd NEVER have it checked to open an image that way. Sometimes it's worth a quick look though.

There is good information about using the raw converter in this inexpensive e-book -- the first one in the upper left. He uses Lightroom but the sliders are the same in Adobe Camera Raw, which is what Photoshop / Bridge uses. Same underlying conversion image, just a different interface.

http://www.michaelfrye.com/books/books.html

You could use Warren's method with layers and masks to give more flexibility. See my tutorial on "The Power (and ease) of Layers in Photohop" in the Educational Resources forum here.

Great image you have here, and worthy of a learning experience. Would love to see the progress!

[Diane Miller]

I forgot to answer on a method for darkening the BG. First, I'd look at lowering the Highlights slider in raw, then bringing up the Shadows if needed. (Balance with Exposure.)

In PS, once it's selected (or masked, on a layer) I'd look at the various contrast tools, before lightening or darkening. Curves or Levels are excellent tools -- Curves gives separate control over shadows and highlights much more than Levels. Levels is just a simple use of Curves, the same as bringing the two Curves end sliders straight in. (Many of the "tools" in PS are just different interfaces for the same thing.) Auto things can be kludges.

[Carolyn Arnesen]

Hi Carolyn, I hope you don't mind but I wanted to see if I could make the adjustments I was thinking of. ...

Warren, It's always good to see a new perspective. Thanks for working on and taking the time to post the image. It's helpful to see the steps in your processing.

[Carolyn Arnesen]

Many thanks for all the good info., Diane. I will look into the sources you suggest and work on expanding my post processing tool basket. Once I've done some experimenting, I'll RP the image.