Instead of reworking the image from yesterday, I decided to post this one which has a bit more eye and feather detail, and hopefully better IQ. Still too much noise to post as a straight photo-again from a huge crop. :(
I did the cropping and exposure adjustment in Lightroom, then used Nik Dfine, Viveza, Color Efex Pro (foliage filter), and Sharpener Pro. A parallel stick to the perch was cloned out and the paint daub filter was applied in PSE.
Very nice, Julie! Love the pose and painted look. Definitely better detail in the bird. There does look to be a bit of a halo around the bird especially the head, and I might run some noise reduction on the BG.
Julie, I love the pose and the open wings. Nice composition and framing. I might smooth out the BG a bit if it were mine. I usually use the clone tool at about 30% opacity w/ a soft brush set a bit larger than usual and try to smooth it out that way. You may be able to select the BG before you start-this may also help evict the halos. I sometimes use the poster effect on the orig. shot, that helps add some detail before you start. Just a thought. You are doing a great job working these difficult subjects. :)
Denise, I appreciate the encouragement. :)
I am having fun trying to work around the lack of a big lens. Thanks for the photoshop tips, this gives me a starting point for further improvement, since I don't know the program too well!
I will put this advice to use when I go back and rework this image.
Last edited by Julie Brown; 03-12-2010 at 12:27 PM.
Red Winged Blackbird Screaming
Posting Permissions
