Ode to Joy

[Bill Dix]

Song sparrow doing what comes naturally. I realize that I've broken the rules and put him in the middle of the frame. This was a fairly severe crop from a horizontal image and I could have given him some more room left and top -- would that have been better? I had to clone out a branch right over his head, and I still haven't mastered those tools, so the BG is a bit blotchy, but much of that BG texture was in the original capture. I set white and black points in PSE to adjust color balance and remove the bluish tint on the breast, but some of it remains. Could that be actual color from reflected light?

Still learning. Comments appreciated.

D90 with VR 80-400mm, at 400 mm. ISO 400, 1/640 s., f 5.6, matrix metering, aperture priority, no exp. comp.

Thanks,

Bill

[Lance Peters]

Hi Bill - main issue for me here is the side lighting - resulting in the front half of your bird being in shadow - allways best to line the sun up at your back with your shadow pointing at your subject to give even lighting - of course all rules are made to be broken.
Like the open beak pose.

If you are struggling with removing branches etc - grab yourself a copy of robert o'tooles APTATS CD - explains quick masks you will be suprised how easy it is - 2nd best $20 you will ever spend - BPN is the first of course :)

Keep em coming :)

[Katie Rupp]

Nice pose, Bill, and Lance offers some good tips for your next capture.

[Gus Cobos]

Hi Bill,
I like the capture and the singing pose...Mr. Peters covered the techs. very nicely, I might add to run a pass of noise reduction in the background...looking forward to your next one...:cool:

[Alfred Forns]

Hi Bill

some good advice !!! Can add I would use a fill flash .. will help with light and sharpness !!!! btw after you make your initial image try moving in closer !!!

[Bill Jobes]

All the good advice notwithstanding, you seem to have captured the bird at the peak of its song.

It's really quite the dramatic moment! Nicely done.

[David Thomasson]

I love this image. You've got some good advice for next time, but when will you see a pose quite like this again? Don't toss this one. With a little fuss, it will come through just fine.

[Desmond Chan]

I saw the thumbnail and didn't notice all those issues raised by all the experts here :D

Anyhow, I think I was actually attracted by the post, the color and the lighting as seen in that thumbnail image. So at least to me this one's got some potential. Then David did it !

[Bill Dix]

Thanks for all the good advice. Great repost from David. Unfortunately I guess I'll have to upgrade to full Photoshop, since Elements doesn't have the functionality to support the APTATS techniques.

Bill

[David Thomasson]

Thanks for all the good advice. Great repost from David. Unfortunately I guess I'll have to upgrade to full Photoshop, since Elements doesn't have the functionality to support the APTATS techniques.

Bill

Just add layer masks to your version of Elements and you can do just about anything with it. You can find free add-ons through Google.

[Desmond Chan]

Just add layer masks to your version of Elements and you can do just about anything with it. You can find free add-ons through Google.

Thanks for all the good advice. Great repost from David. Unfortunately I guess I'll have to upgrade to full Photoshop, since Elements doesn't have the functionality to support the APTATS techniques.

Bill

Elements still use adjustment layers, and adjustment layers come with mask. The work-around way to use mask in Elements - if the latest versions not already have mask readily available - is to attach whatever layer you're using to the adjustment layer and use the mask of the latter as if it is attached to your image layer.

Other than add-ons, there are already a lot of work-around ways to do things in Elements. Here is a site that I'd say Elements user should visit:

http://www.photoshopelementsuser.com/

I used to use Elements 5. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I would expect the latest version of Elements would just be better and more powerful than the older versions. And I would say you can do whatever David did to your photo with Elements alone. If you still have doubts, go visit that site.

[Bill Dix]

Thanks David and Desmond for the helpful advice. This site continues to amaze me with all that I am learning. I googled layer masks and came up with a bunch of useful info including a free Elements plug-in which purports to simplify the work-around. I'm using Elements 7 and it seems to be working, but I have a lot of practicing to do. I'll check out the elementsuser site which should help even more. I've also purchased Denoise, thanks to the earlier suggestions. Initial impression is that it is an indispensable tool.

Bill