"Bobbin" in soft focus

[Cheryl Flory]

Here is my second try at Denise's soft fix tutorial.
After following her tutorial, I did an additional layer on the background.
This is a Lanner Falcon, named Bobbin, flown by a falconer.

[Cheryl Flory]

One problem I see is the soft halo around the body.
Another problem is that there is a large color shift from what I saw in Photoshop to what I see here, especially noticable is the reddish/magenta tint in the off white feathers. What causes that? How do I prevent that?

(The colors are accurate in Photoshop, and I have calibrated my new monitor.)

Thanks!

[denise ippolito]

Cheryl, I do see the small halo and that is from the filter. Do you save your files as sRGB for the web? What program are you using to convert your raw images-assuming you are shooting in raw?

I like the sharp eyes and nice pose. I'm not a fan of square crops for portraits but this seems fine.

[Cheryl Flory]

Denise, yes, I used sRGB to save for the web, and used ACR in Photoshop to work on the image.

I have gone back and desaturated the red in the white feathers, but in order to remove all that tint I also lost some of the warm cream color the feathers are suppose to have.

This image is more square since I shot it vertical, and only had extra at the top where I cropped. I didn't do any cropping from the sides.

It certainly doesn't have that wonderful quality of your fox image.

[denise ippolito]

Cheryl, I always use the color picker in Lightroom to adjust my color. I found this in the Avian forum and it sounds like Artie's color correction method though I never tried it.

Color Cast Correction :

Open image
Duplicate image
Have both images on screen Windows > Tiles
On duplicate image : Filter > Blur > Average
On original image : Curves > Midtone Eye Dropper > Click once on Duplicate Blur Copy > View instant correction on original copy !
If it is too much of a correction use opacity slider to adjust.

[Cheryl Flory]

Thanks, Denise! I will try that.
I just went back to the original, and noticed that as soon as I opened it in PS, it already lost some color. Do I have some PS settings wrong?

That could be part of my problem, that while working in PS, it looks one color when in reality, it is another color. And then I am surprised when i open the image outside of PS.

[Kerry Perkins]

Cheryl, beautiful bird and the soft treatment works well. I agree with your self-assessment regarding the halo, would be an easy fix.

Sounds like you definitely have an issue with color management in your workflow somewhere. If you go to the Adobe web site they have some good information on how to set up your color management so that your images look the same on your monitor, your printer, and your images saved for the web. You should take a close look at how you have PS set up to manage color.

[Cheryl Flory]

Thanks, Kerry. I will give their site a look, too.

[Christopher Miller]

Very lovely portrait, Cheryl! I love the pose, and the detail in the face is terrific. Very nice filter treatment too.

I've never had any problems with color shifts using PS, so afraid I can't help there.