I have a close range great cerulean warbler image but forgot to remove my Beamer. It has enough excess flash to have reduced the nice blue color in one area. I've tried the usual adjustments in the Raw conversion and in Photoshop: levels, highlights, curves, added saturation but can't get fully satisfied with the results. Perhaps there is no absolute fix for the capture but curious if there are more subtle blending options, layer techniques, etc. that might not only reduce the overflash but get back some color. (or maybe it's lost altogether)
Hi Jeff Why don't you post the image to give it a try? Right here is fine For white birds I have given up on the flash or set it to 1/16th on manual !!
Thanks Alfred, I have to wait until I get home this evening . . I'll convert the raw file with no adjustments and save as a compressed jpg with no sharpening. Then post. Thanks. If you want to see my attempt at processing it, this is the processed photo on my site. I feel it is not ideal, still suffering from overflash as presented.
Jeff, normally when shooting outside with flash, I'm using AWB. Under these conditions, I find that cooling the WB down slighty goes a long way in returning that "natural" look. I know you're looking for advice later in the workflow too, but this may be a good place to start.
I personally like the sponge tool to selectively saturate plumage areas. Soft brush, 6-8% opacity (repeat if necessary). If that doesn't work you could always clone in some neighbouring pixels, again a soft brush with low opacity (20-25% at most)
BTW I think the colours and overall appearance look good on your processed image...
Reducing excess flash on bird feathers
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