Spotted Sandpiper

[Gail Spitler]

This adult Spotted Sandpiper is watching me very closely as her downy youngster scurries along behind me.

In processing afterwards I attempted to remove a couple of unnecessary parts of her perch - one larger log on the lower left and a tiny one on the lower right. I also tried toning down some of the highlights in the upper right. I'm using PS Elements 6. When I look at the background, I can see 'smudge' lines. How do I clone an item out of the background and not have these telltale signs left? Also on the lower left, the gray is from the gray log that I tried to clone away. Why can't I get this area to be a shade of dark green similar to the rest of the bg? :confused::confused::confused:

Thanks for any all suggestions and comments.
Gail

Canon 40D with 100-400 f/4.5-5.6, 400mm at f/6.3, 1/1000 sec, EV with -1/3 compensation, AWB, handheld

[Anita Rakestraw]

Hi, Gail, nice sharp clear sandpiper and great background to showcase her in! On my monitor, I can't see the smudges in the bg, but know what you mean from my own experience. A couple of ways to eliminate the issues you're concerned about: Sometimes selecting the bg carefully and blurring it more will smooth things out. Using cloning, to obtain better smoothness, vary your brush size, shape, and opacity until the edges/colors blend the way you want them to. Hope this helps. Others will probably have more suggestions.

[Lance Peters]

HI Gail - Nice bird - like the pose- like the eye contact and the BG.

Eye and head look a little soft in comparison to the rest of the bird. Might also try to tone down the BG highlights just a little.
I cant see the area's you are refering to on my screen - Did you use Quick Mask's?? Robert O'Tooles quick masks CD is Excellent.

[Nonda Surratt]

Good going Gail..I can't see the smudges either. Agree with Lance on the Quick Masks

[Gail Spitler]

Thanks everyone.
Quick Masks, as I understand it, doesn't work in Elements 6, only in the full PS. It may be one of the reasons I eventually move up to PS full version. Adobe keeps making Elements more and more sophisticated, but layer masks are limited to adjustment layers and fill layers for now.
It's interesting that none of you can see my squiggles; I can still see them but I know right where to look.
Anita I have taken your suggestions and am working on improving my cloning technique. Thanks for the specific suggestions.
Lance it's interesting that you see the head as softer. The focus point is basically on the lower edge of the cheek (auricular area); so I am not sure why the softness you're observing should happen?
Thanks again
Gail

[Harold Davis]

from what i can see on my monitor your work looks good!!! the thing that bothers me the most is the lighting. it looks pretty harsh and the legs are the give away. they, along with the whites look a little hot. if you could tone those down and get some detail out of them, it would be even better!!

[Alfred Forns]

Gail you can try a plug in which will help PhotoKit Sharpener It has brushes and can use for smoothing I understand that the same can be done with PS but I like the convenience and seed !!!

Excellent capture, very good pose and very sharp !!! I like it a lot

Just used the smoothing brushes ... nothing else !! Any smoother? I use it a lot its a nice finishing touch.

[Julie Kenward]

Anita, I'm trying to remember if Elements has a shadow/highlight adjustment? If it does, you can tone down the highlights using that - just play with the sliders in the highlights section until you get it where you like it.

I think the "lines" you are seeing where you cloned are not from cloning as from what is called posterization. If you do a huge crop or if you start with a smaller sized jpeg file - this can sometimes creep into an image. It also happens if you push the saturation or tonal range too much.

Make sure your camera is set to take the largest size jpeg image (the one with the biggest pixel size). If you have it on the largest setting already, it might be one of the other things I mentioned that is the culprit.

[Gail Spitler]

Again - thanks again
Al I am really impressed with what you did with the PhotoKit Sharpener. I am on my way to google it right now. It will be a great boon for me. Backgrounds are a (small) bane of my existence.

Gail

[Desmond Chan]

How do I clone an item out of the background and not have these telltale signs left? Also on the lower left, the gray is from the gray log that I tried to clone away. Why can't I get this area to be a shade of dark green similar to the rest of the bg? :confused::confused::confused:

Thanks for any all suggestions and comments.
Gail

Here's something you can do. After using the clone stamp tool (assuming that's what you use to clone) on a blank layer, add another blank layer and applies the healing brush to those cloned-out spots. After that, you can also applies a slight blur to those telltale signs. To adjust the colors, you can try Hue/Saturation layer and limit the adjustment to the color that you want to adjust. Hue/Saturation is very useful, it can change the colors, their saturation and their brightness.

You have a good looking sandpiper there! Good pose, good light.

[Gail Spitler]

Darn ... for anyone else who is interested in PhotoKit Sharpener, it needs the full version of PS. It doesn't work with PSElements. darn, darn, darn
Gail

[Gail Spitler]

Thanks Desmond. I'll give that a try. Recent reading about Clone Stamp got me started on using a new layer for it. Your suggestion fits right in. Thanks
Gail

[Desmond Chan]

Darn ... for anyone else who is interested in PhotoKit Sharpener, it needs the full version of PS. It doesn't work with PSElements. darn, darn, darn
Gail

Have you registered or subscribe to anything after you bought Elements? Sooner or later Adobe will try to sell you the full version. I got mine half-price from Adobe. I used to use Elements 5 (still have it).

[Dave Slaughter]

Nice photo, Gail, of a bird not too cooperative usually. I personally really like the background.