This Wood Duck was enjoying a spin in Cleveland last weekend. I wanted to combine the colors of the duck with the fall leaves. The main issue for me is if the leaves are too busy and distracting? I did tone down some of the brighter reflections off them.
D300 70-200 f5.6 1/640 180mm handheld
Post: PS CS4 Some toning down of reflections off the leaves, selective sharpening on bird, 20% crop for comp.
Advice appreciated as always.
Thanks
Randy
Last edited by Randy Stout; 10-25-2009 at 06:46 PM.
Randy, I like the addition of the leaves and you did great with all the colors on the bird and water. Comp looks good but I wish you had his whole reflection. Congrats
The light was in your favor that day. Good HA and nice job of capturing the colors, especially on the head. I don't mind the leaves too much, maybe just that one big one by the side ot his neck. I see you didn't need the big guns for this shoot, was this taken at the area by the deck?
Good for you Randy to be able to get so close. I really like all the different shades of colour that come out in the duck. The bg is not the clean look normally seem, but still looks nice. However everything seems on the bright side, bird included, on my monitor. Dave
Randy the shot looks fine with the leaves--gives the shot a sense of season. For me, the only problem I see is the way that you toned down the highlights on the leaves. I think I sensed it even before I read that thats what you did. If i may offer a suggestion: Pick out one of the leaves that has some amount of size and no reflections. Do a loose select of it with lasso. Turn the selection into a layer. Using transform--make maybe 50% bigger(Optional step). Opacity to 50% and move your selected leaf over one that needs toning down. Opacity back to 100, Mask, Invert, Paint in with brush at ten percent some color to tone down the offending leaf.
I almost never use clone anymore because I find this technique better and is easily reversible cause everything's on a layer. And you can so much better control what your doing. Dupe your selected layer to cover the next leaf. Vary the look with a curves or other adjustment. Use transform to stretch and size things. The key to making it look real is to take the time to keep varying the look of what your painting on from what you just painted on the previous leaf.. Any conformity will look phony.
Dave - in looking at it again, I do think you are right, slightly less bright would be better.
Paul - Thanks for the detailed input. I am still on the steep part of the learning curve for photoshop, having used NX2 for most of my editing in the past. I will do some studying here!
Wood duck with fall leaves
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