Faber Castell - Macaw Abstraction

[Adhika Lie]

For the longest time, I called the macaws as the "Faber-Castell birds". This is a little bit different take of the bird. It is not exactly documentary-style avian picture, so everything is highly subjective here. What drew me in when I shot this bird at the Alligator farm was really the feather - color and texture. I thought hard about composition but could not think of any at that time so, this shot here is pretty much a lucky shot that works for me in that series of shot I took.

I am not sure if the OOF eye bothers anyone. It probably bothers the purist but it doesn't bother me in this case. Let me know what you think, or rather feel, about this image when you look at it. I pretty much shot this really tight; almost no cropping was done. I did do -1.5 degree rotation to make it look right to my eyes so whatever pixel is lost, was lost in the rotational process.

Shot at 600mm, f/8, 1/250, ISO 1600; Raw processing in LR as usual plus a few dodging and burning on Affinity Photo via quick mask. I am tempted to do more processing; maybe convert it with watercolor filter or what not, but I don't have the software to do that yet.

[Glennie Passier]

Adhika. This is different. I know blues and yellows sort of go together, but I would be tempted to crop this just to where the yellow OOF feathers begin and concentrate on the beautiful, sharp, texturual feathers. The lower blue stuff is just outstanding to me. You have caught that just right. Probably not what you want to hear. I really do like the image as posted though.

[Adhika Lie]

Glennie, you mean something like this? I love the even tighter composition. Thanks for giving this idea. At first, I really love the curvature around the top, but then if it is OOF then probably there is no point of "highlighting" the curvature; perhaps it's better to just show up the complementary color in this case, right?

[Glennie Passier]

That, to me, works better. Do you have the tiniest bit on the bottom to include that central feathers tip?

[Adhika Lie]

Ugh, you found the weakest spot. I spent hours to re-create the tip but I just didn't have the skill. I love this crop more, too. And oh, just for fun.....

[Warren Spreng]

Ugh, you found the weakest spot. I spent hours to re-create the tip but I just didn't have the skill. I love this crop more, too. And oh, just for fun.....

Now that's fun! Is that with the Water Color filter?

[Diane Miller]

First thing I did was a scroll crop and got the same result Glennie posted. (Need to put her on retainer...)

Love the colors and feather detail and DOF!! No other nits, but a good point to wish for the tip of that feather. Doubt I could reconstruct more at the bottom.

[Adhika Lie]

Now that's fun! Is that with the Water Color filter?

Warren, indeed. I played with Waterlogue. It turned out pretty nice, didn't it?

[Adhika Lie]

Diane, indeed. Glennie has a pair of very good eyes. I did not see that crop initially, but after trying her suggestion, it was BAM!

[Glennie Passier]

That's an interesting effect! In a past life, I was a water colourist, so I can appreciate this. I got painters block, and have not picked up a brush in over ten years. I'm going to have a look at Waterlogue.

[Adhika Lie]

Glennie, knowing your eyes and sensibility, I should've guessed that you've been in this game for a while, albeit in another form. Waterlogue is very simplistic. You just select from some preset that they provide in the app. I think you might want greater control. I wonder if there is a tutorial out there (free or pay) that can teach us how to convert a normal photograph into watercolor painting on photoshop manually! That would be a pretty neat thing to learn although I really wish I know how to draw or paint to begin with.

[Diane Miller]

Check out some of the pieces on Out of the Box -- there are some similar techniques there every so often, but I haven't seen Waterlogue mentioned.

Corel Painter has some amazing watercolor abilities, but they are way beyond my abilities with it. There is a very inexpensive version called Corel Painter Lite that may have a lot of autopainting capabilities with various styles.

[Stuart Philpott]

Adhika,very different,i'm surprised just how much I like it but I do!! Great shout by Glennie ,good eyes mate, well done you on the crop !! Adhika the blues are just stunning and has already been mentioned the yellow just sets them off so well.
So all in all cheers for sharing something I probably would never have thought of taking myself ,and wonderful execution too boot
well done
take care
Stu