It's becoming increasingly apparent that these birds spend a lot of their life upside down. This pose is cute for a while, but is sometimes hard to get a decent crop. I am not that fond of square crops, but I think it works OK. I tried all the focus points activated again, but this time the success rate was a lot less. Not sure why? Some good poses, but not quite sharp where they need to be.
In ACR - Exposure to the right, Shadows to the right and highlights left. I didn't notice the bright OOF strip down the side when shooting.
In PSCS6 - Curves layer on BG and paint and clone on BG. Cropped a little more than the "crop" image shows and bottom of perch cloned out. Smart sharpened for posting.
Glennie: Another great (vertical) portrait! Love the berries varied colors mimicking the bird's!
I do see one thing that I wonder if you can do anything about in PS -- do you see the dark shadow band (from the branch stem) crossing the purple body and green wing? Is there any technique you could use to eliminate that? Dodging?
Now that's just a real nit there, my request is more of question of "can you?" as I have some photos with varying degrees of shadows like this, and I was just wondering how difficult or if possible to remove.
Wow again!! What an incredible perch for this bird -- and the perfect name for the image!! You've done gorgeous work on the BG again, too. Don't you love that you can paint your images!?
The shadow might be lightened or even cloned out but it would be work. It is natural and inconspicuous enough that it doesn't bother me. The only small things I see are to maybe either remove the berry right at the top of the frame or leave more room for it. And bring in more detail on the tail -- maybe a little darker and more contrast. sometimes double-processing works well for something like that but I think a masked Curves might do it just as well.
Keep 'em coming -- I'm loving your birds. Sometimes our Acorn Woodpeckers will hang upside down under a branch, looking like they are showing off, but it is fleeting.
That BG is so bokeh-licious! I really like how the color of the bird is complimented by the color of the coffee berries. The title is very appropriate. I think a touch of clarity on the tail would do wonder!
Wow is right Glennie!! This one is awesome!! The pose, the colors, the details, the perch, the BG, did I forget anything else? One of the best Rainbow Lorie frames I have ever seen. Great work. Oh ya, love the title too.
I read a few comments so I thought I would play around with this image to show you how easy it is to remove the shadows in PS. This took me all of about 5 minutes and you will have much better success with the RAW file as apposed to this small JPEG.
I removed the shadows from the wing, belly and under the legs using only the clone tool in PS. I then added some more coffee beans to the top of the branch to balance it out, and because I like coffee:). Next I increased the catch light as It looked a bit to small to me. I then adjusted the tone a bit and a small levels adjustment.
Next a .1 increase in exposure. I then smoothed out the BG a little and darkened the tail with a few sweeps of the dodge tool. That's it! Once you become proficient with PS this type of PP work will become second nature. Not that you don't know this stuff but I thought I would throw it out there.
Hope you don't mind me fiddling with your image but I liked it so much I had to give it a try.
Come join me for a Custom Raptor Workshop starting this November 2019- January 2020.
P.M. me to inquire on dates, pricing and availabilities. Thank You. www.davidsalemphotography.com
Wowsa! Thank you David. You have done some very nice work here. When it was suggested that I could maybe get rid of the shadow, I thought...yeah...In my dreams. And here it is. And so very convincingly. I really like the way you have increased the exposure and smoothed out the BG a bit more. Th extra coffee beans are the icing on the cake!
These little guys are coming to my garden quite often now, so I hope to have a few more frames coming. I just wish I had eyes like yours and our wonderful Diane here in the ETL!
I'm glad you like the RP Glennie. Look forward to more from your garden!
Come join me for a Custom Raptor Workshop starting this November 2019- January 2020.
P.M. me to inquire on dates, pricing and availabilities. Thank You. www.davidsalemphotography.com
Awesome picture Glennie! I love everything about it – the background, the colours of the bird, the perch. I like the original post better. I know the shadows are distracting but the image looks more natural to me. Also the background of the repost is a bit too bright, or at least it looks this way on my display, and I think makes the subject disappear a bit.
Great capture and looking forward to more of it!
Kalin
RGB
