Early morning. This frame was first off the camera. It was really a test shot to see what techs I would be aiming for.
In ACR - Decreased exposure a tad. Highlights -100 and shadows lifted. A little vibrance.
In PSCS6 - This is almost full frame. Cropped off slice LHS, bottom and top . Leveled. A bit of dodging and burning reflection. NR on BG. Very little sharpening on bird.
Glennie, you are nailing every photos now! It's unfair. Haha. I think the exposure is spot on. I LOVEEEE the green background. I think the details on the feathers really show up on this one and the angle is perfect for me. I think it comes down to the details now. To me, the OOF ripples that cut through the head detracts from the image. I am not suggesting you to clone it out although that would be a good PS exercise.
Thanks Adhika! Unfair?...I drool over your landscapes. I thought this one may have been a bit on the dark side, but decided to go with it. The OOF ripples are the contrail of another duck. I have three similar frames, and this was the best of them. I reckon it would be a good PS exercise!
I like the dark look Glennie, really do,the bird just sings against that background,just lovely pov is great. I agree with Adhika you really are nailing it g your hard work is paying off...good for you !!!!
Very nice! Looks like you're getting sharp shots and controlling exposure well. I might go a very small amount higher in exposure, if the lightest area on the neck will hold up. Nice job of rotation, but always best to get as close as possible in camera.
I'd allow a little more canvas below, so as to not crowd the reflection. If you don't have it after the rotation, that's why I'd try not to have to rotate much. It can be surprising what you loose when you straighten things.
The blues are a bit of a distraction, but not avoidable in capture. Here's a quick fix. I drew a quick mask over the blue streaks (very soft-edged) and did a hue-sat adj layer. Changed the hue of both blue and cyan (sliders to left), darkened both a bit and tweaked the range sliders (the ones at the bottom) for just a bit better result. Then did a selective color adj layer, copied the same mask to it (Alt-drag), and went to the neutral channel, as now the streaks are leaning toward gray, and went a little right with the cyan and yellow sliders. Very crude but you get the idea.
The nice thing is, the colors do the selection for you -- you don't have to mask the blues precisely if they are the only colors you will change.
Might be able to do some work with cloning, too.
Last edited by Diane Miller; 03-31-2016 at 10:03 PM.
Diane, thank you as always! I would be a little worried about the bright neck. I do always tend to like darkish and moody. The rotation is actually a "transform - distort" . I think I could get plenty out of the bottom to not crowd the reflection. I'm going to try and mask as you suggest. Would a "replacement colour" work?
Thanks Diane. That little exercise of replacing colour is obviously meant for someone with a bit more skill than myself! I also tried the different layers as you suggested and got myself into more trouble. I managed to work it out, but still not entirely happy with the result. This has been another learning curve. If the image takes that much time to try to perfect it, it's not a good image to start with. I'm sure the more I play with PS, the better I will become. I decided in the end, that I didn't mind the blue BG ripples, so decided to clone them out a little and reduce them being noticed so much. In the repost, I can see banding in the green BG.
You'll figure it out, piece by piece -- you've made tremendous progress so far! The cloning worked well, at least at this size of image.
Not sure I agree with "If the image takes that much time to try to perfect it, it's not a good image to start with. In this case, I think you have a good image with a small issue that could make it better. When you learn a few more tricks the color thing won't take long at all. I probably spent 3 minutes on it. But I probably didn't take time to explain it fully, either. Not sure where you got hung up with layers....
I think "fixing" an image with some layer-masked color work is often less intrusive and a lot less work than cloning.
Maybe I should do a tutorial??
And now wondering if the image is a little on the dark side?
Pacific Black Duck
I also tried the different layers as you suggested and got myself into more trouble. I managed to work it out, but still not entirely happy with the result. This has been another learning curve. If the image takes that much time to try to perfect it, it's not a good image to start with. I'm sure the more I play with PS, the better I will become. I decided in the end, that I didn't mind the blue BG ripples, so decided to clone them out a little and reduce them being noticed so much. In the repost, I can see banding in the green BG.
