Varigated Fairy Wren Female

[Michael Sowden]

This is full frame so I don't have many cropping options. These birds are tiny and are constantly moving so "laying in wait" is my normal tactic, this one was just outside the min focus distance. The females are "plain janes" compared to the magnificant males but the females are generally more tolerant of people.

The backgrounds untidy, perhaps one of the photoshop wizards on this site could do their magic:D and explain the process.

Pentax *istDS, 50-500mm @ 500mm, f6.7 @ 1/160th, Iso 400, from bean bag

Cheers Mike

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Very nice angle and details, Mike. I would prefer if the bird would look toward you and it is a bit tight in the frame. I like those Australian birds with long tails. :)

[Fabs Forns]

Hi Mike,

I did a quick fix-it-upper. Easier to do in a full size TIFF, but just to illustrate:

Since we need canvas on the right and the bottom, fist thing I used the crop tool and added space opposite where I wan to add. Cropped. Now I have a blank space on the right, Duplicate the layer and use the Move Toll (V) drag the upper layer to cover the blank.

Go to the bottom of the layer's palette, pick the third box from left and click on it. This will create a layer mask. Making sure the mask is selected (you'll see a square around it), choose the Brush Too (B), You need to have black a Foreground color in your Tool Palette.

With a small SOFT brush, paint black on the line, this should erase it. White on the foreground will have the opposite effect.
Now merge the layers and retouch with the Clone Stamp (S)

Repeat the procedure with the bottom of the frame: Add canvas on top..etc

Merge layers when you finish, ah, remember to use a soft or hard brush in cloning, depending on your needs.

Duplicate the layer. Go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur and select and amount that will diffuse the background in a credibly way. Render.
Go back to the layer's palette and create a layer mask (I told how before) Brush with black will erase the blur from bird.

Hope this helps. I am not going to use the Burn tool in the BG because I'm afraid it will increase the contrast and be counter-productive.

Ah, wish for a head turn your way...I tried in PS but it didn't work;):)

[Maxis Gamez]

I wish for the bird to look toward me and what Fab did helps the composition a lot.

[James Salywoda]

Excellent details and a nice shot just wish you got some eye contact I like what Fabs did to give the image more room.

[Michael Sowden]

Thanks Fabs, that looks great. I will try on the original.

Thanks Mike

[Juan Carlos Vindas]

Interesting technique, I will have to try that one of these days.

By the way, this is a cute bird, agree with Axel about the tail.