While walking in the forest near home, i suprised this deer and had time to took this picture.
I would like to have the background more pale but don`t know how to do it in Photoshop. Is it desirable? or faisable? How to do it?
Hi Yves its not difficult to lighten the bg You can enter quickmask and paint the deer. When you exit the bg is selected, would feather by five of more then you can lighten the bg. Tried it but looks sort of odd !!! Not bad at all as presented.
Although the bg is busy I don't find it objectionable for this image. I like the strong eye contact with the look back pose !!!! Excellent !!!
Yves,
You are getting some good subjects around your locality. I like how the colour of the deer matches with the vegetation. I am ok with the background in this image. The deer is part of the forest and hence showing the habitat is not undesirable. However, we have to keep in mind that the habitat should not distract our attention from the animal. In this case there are no burnt highlights distracting. I won't be inclined to clone the background.
In this forum, you will find lot of people following the style popularised by Arthur Morris - The bird sharply in focus and background completely out of focus. It immediately attracts attention, as the subject stands out. That is why you will find lot of comments in this forum about background not clean etc. I consider it to be a part of a minimalistic approach and it really works wonders.
Apart from the distracting branch or grass or leaves appearing infront of the face etc to distract attention, there may be some strong colours distracting our attention. Initially it may be difficult, but just keep these in mind, slowly it will come automatically to you. Try to remove unwanted elements as much as you can, and the composition will become stronger.
Now the question is how to obtain a clean background. You can use a shallow depth of field ie. use the widest lens opening of your lens. So it can be the f4 in a 300mm f4, 500mm f4 or 600mm f4 lens. If you are photographing with a 100-400 lens then the aperture is f5.6 and it gives a lot of depth of field. In such situations, you have to see that the animal is not standing close to a bush or tree. The farther it is from a bush or tree, the more diffused will be the background. If the background is atleast five feet or greater distance behind the subject, then it would appear nicely out of focus. Though I am trying to make it appear simple here, there are other variables like the distance of the subject from you. When you find time, try to look at the depth of field characteristics of your lens. Also, in most of the cameras you will find a depth of field preview button. It will be of help.
Ohh God! I have written such much without realising. Bad day. Was caught up in some bad traffic. Time for some coffee.
Image works well for me as is. My suggesting is it needs to be sharpened. See http://www.birdphotographers.net/for...ead.php?t=5598 1/2 way down in thread for info on making JPGs for posting - includes sharpening recommendations.