Starting again!

[Christopher C.M. Cooke]

I seem to have regressed with my PP so I thought I would start again in this part of the forum and gradually work my way up to the higher levels.

Backgrounds and sharpening are my first hurdles so any help would be appreciated whilst I delve into Artie's wonderful books and pdfs.

This was captured with a EOS 7D and 300mm f/4 L IS, f/5.6, 1/100 Sec. Pattern metering, ISO-400, hand hels at a distance of 1.9 Meters to the subject, 0 Step.

_MG_2944RZ.jpg

[Alfred Forns]

Hi Chris You seem to be doing just fine, this is some kind of sharp !!!

bg wise just pick what you want, make sure it is back far enough to be rendered smooth. If you have room can stop down a bit. A different color bg might have been better, just taste. Processing wise might lower the saturation on the red channel a couple of points, seems to go over al on its own and reduces detail in the reds !! I like it a lot !!

[Christopher C.M. Cooke]

Thanks Alfred, backgrounds are like Krytonite to me.

I am deep into Artie's Digital basics at present, I just need to take my time and not rush the learning process.:)

Age does not necessarily bring patience with it.

[Lance Peters]

Hi Chris - looking good, when you first look at it - it appears to be over-sharpened - however I know my experience the fine feathers on these guys are deceiving.
One orange blob in the upper rhs corner that needs to be evicted.
Good show :)

[Christopher C.M. Cooke]

Backed off the red saturation, removed orange blob and hardly any sharpening was done on the image, Amount 11, Radios 0.3.

_MG_2944RZ2.jpg