BEIGE ON BEIGE

[gary ellwein]

The Sage Thrash image was captured last week during a visit to City of Rocks Nat. Reserve. The Reserve is in south central Idaho near the Utah border. In addition to great rock climbing and scenery, the area offers good birding for species occupying the arid sage and juniper ecosystem. The original image was less than ideal with harsh side lighting and a poor bg. My choice of a brown texture bg reflects the current transition of our range land from green to brown. For the last two weeks we have been 15 degrees above normal with temps pushing triple digits. A selective light application of Fractalius and poster edge brought out a bit of detail in the bird.

[Jackie Schuknecht]

Beautiful work, beautiful processing Gary. I love the almost monotone and the open beak. Lovely!

[Diane Miller]

Beautiful -- I love the colors and that is the perfect perch!

I hope we all survive the weather -- so hot and dry out here and wet and stormy in the central and eastern states.

[Judy Howle]

A splendid pose and I really like your toning and processing!

[Anita Bower]

What a beauty! Love the simplicity and limited colors. Nice how the feet blend into the stump. Great clarity, pose and eye. There are some small spots to the right of the head, probably part of a texture, that a a little distracting to me.
How did you separate the bird from the distracting bg of the original image? You did a great job.

[Cheryl Slechta]

Gary, this is beautifully done, especially if you started with a less than ideal image. Your filtering made it very sharp, very detailed and the monochromatic colors made it delicate at the same time.

[gary ellwein]

Thanks to all for the look and comments. Anita, the texture replaced the bg.

[Anita Bower]

Anita, the texture replaced the bg.

But how did you get it so even around the bird?

[gary ellwein]

Anita, I used a layers mask. After applying the texture, I applied a layer mask. Using a black brush, I removed the texture from the thrasher.

[Anita Bower]

Anita, I used a layers mask. After applying the texture, I applied a layer mask. Using a black brush, I removed the texture from the thrasher.

You did an excellent job!

[Diane Miller]

The Quick Selection tool is often quite good to isolate a subject. Then turn that selection into a mask by clicking on the icon to make a layer mask, and paint with black or white to refine where necessary. Leave the mask for future refinements if necessary.

If that's not good enough, Topaz Remask is very good -- easy to use but not exactly intuitive.

[Mitch Carucci]

You did a great job with this one. The image jumps out because of the simplicity tones. I really like this one.

[Wendy Kates]

Ditto to all the comments above: this is a striking and beautiful image.

[Paul Lagasi]

Very nice Thrasher image, personally I'd chop a little off the left side but that's because learned behavior is tough to break. Well done