Galapagos #2/Red ...

[Arthur Morris]

I created very few Marine Iguana images this trip as compared to previous years. As were were leaving Hood at about 6pm, we stopped to photograph this small one. It rewarded us with a big yawn. Two clipped toes were repaired. Canon 800mm f/5.6L IS lens with the EOS-1D MIII. ISO 400. Evaluative metering +2/3 stop: 1/200 sec. at f/9.

Don't be shy; all comments welcome.

[David Fletcher]

Good ps work on the toes Artie. Prefer this to your other Iguana posts. The danger, imv, being the salt crusted bodies creates a low contrast image, without punch. This has color and the yawn working for it. The top of the snout has some highlight work needed, unless I guess, you have deliberately left this for dialogue needs,.

[John Blumenkamp]

Hi Artie... the yawn you captured here is great, and the background you have him set against is really nice. Great PS work... I can't tell which toes were worked on, which is what you want I'm sure. ;-)

[Arthur Morris]

Hi David, Thanks for stopping by.

re:

Good ps work on the toes Artie.

TYS (Thank you sir.)

Prefer this to your other Iguana posts.

Ah, the Land Iguana. Correct?

The danger, imv, being the salt crusted bodies creates a low contrast image, without punch.

I am totally confused by what you say above. The salt is whitish grey--that would seem to present problems with too high contrast unless photographed in soft light, as this was. Please explain.

This has color and the yawn working for it.

Agree and thanks.

The top of the snout has some highlight work needed

There are no over-exposed pixels, but it looks as if there are some bright areas there; a result of covnersion to a JPEG; the optimized TIFF looks fine.

unless I guess, you have deliberately left this for dialogue needs,

If I ever posted an image that featured less than my best image optimization skills, it would be in Eager To Learn (as some sort of test). When I post in Avian you are seeing my best efforts. I do, however, often receive helpful suggestions here.

[Arthur Morris]

Hi Artie... the yawn you captured here is great, and the background you have him set against is really nice. Great PS work... I can't tell which toes were worked on, which is what you want I'm sure. ;-)

TYS. Here is the original. I borrowed the two toes and some rock from a frame created before he yawned. (When I had time to frame more carefully...)

[Arthur Morris]

The top of the snout has some highlight work needed....

Hey David, I took a second look at the master file and realized that you were more right than I was, so thanks. I ran a 15% Linear Burn on the salt crystals on the top of the head. I hope that I did not make them too grey....

[Peter Kes]

Hi Arthur - nice animal and nice light. BG complementary. The recovery of the oof rock, where it intersects with the Iguana's body, shows some leftovers of your work (oof bits next to sharper bits). Like the dof, right foot to head in focus.

[Steve Canuel]

Nice work on the toes and I think the top of the head in the repost looks a bit better than the original. I can now see more of the very subtle shading differences in those scales. I also really like the color of the iguana and the saliva strings add a nice touch.

[Arthur Morris]

Hi Arthur - nice animal and nice light. BG complementary. The recovery of the oof rock, where it intersects with the Iguana's body, shows some leftovers of your work (oof bits next to sharper bits). Like the dof, right foot to head in focus.

TYS (Thank you sir.) You are right. I struggled with that with the o-o-f rock there in the ORIG too close to the iguana. Any ideas on how to repair it????????

[Jay Gould]

Hi Mate, Your repost in #6 is lovely.

Since this was shot with your 800 - I assume on a tripod - was the Iguana up high or did you have to compress the leg of the tripod. It is a wonderful "yawning" capture, and appears to have been done at the Iguana's level.

I agree with Peter regarding the "leftovers". There is a line in the rock (and the small area before and after the line towards the tail) under the leg forward of the elbow that appears to be repeated where you removed/repaired the rock.

I am just learning about the Clone Tool - in fact, I am just learning about everything photographic and Photoshoped - could you use the Clone Tool to perhaps pixel by pixel obliterate the repeated line? As I am staring at the area while typing this I see more of a repeat pattern.

How can you - for want of a better word - disguise the repeat? Thanks in advance for the further education.

[Peter Kes]

I took a small qm of the body/rock intersection to the left of the problem area. In the new layer (ctrl-j) used the Transform tool to align it best and used the eraser tool to take away parts not needed. Since there is not a lot to work with on the left I used the clonestamp tool to get rid of the other oof parts, taking material from the right. ****, putting this to words is very difficult. It is a bit fiddly work .

[Jay Gould]

Peter, to do what you did and obliterate all repeat pattern, would you have to pixel by pixel - if necessary - pick from different parts of the rock to complete the transformation? I quickly did the attached as that is the area I would continue to work on; correct?

[Peter Kes]

Hi Jay - no I don't, but I am working with a reduced image size. I can do better with the original size. As Arthur pointed out, he took stuff from another image to get the nails: there might be material to get this rock surface back in shape as well. I, as you rightfully point out, am acutely aware of repetitive patterns. I often use the flip techique: take a part from a similar looking part of the image and flip it horizontally or vertically before applying it to my 'work area', so avoiding obvious repetitive patterns.

[Arthur Morris]

Thanks Peter, The interesection looks better but I cannot say that the rock itself is a big improvement. I guess that the lesson is to get it right in the field...

[Arthur Morris]

Jay,

re:

Your repost in #6 is lovely.

TYS.

Since this was shot with your 800 - I assume on a tripod

Brilliant assumption.

- was the Iguana up high or did you have to compress the leg of the tripod.

Huh???

It is a wonderful "yawning" capture, and appears to have been done at the Iguana's level.

The lens was about a foot ro two above the animal. There was a group of us hanging back. We were in a rush. We were doing two others when I noticed this one. I remember moving right and pulling the tripod legs together to get higher, to get over the rock, but being in rush and having others on both sides of me I was careless.

I agree with Peter regarding the "leftovers". There is a line in the rock (and the small area before and after the line towards the tail) under the leg forward of the elbow that appears to be repeated where you removed/repaired the rock.

There are lots of problems in the rock....

I am just learning about the Clone Tool - in fact, I am just learning about everything photographic and Photoshoped - could you use the Clone Tool to perhaps pixel by pixel obliterate the repeated line? As I am staring at the area while typing this I see more of a repeat pattern.

I do not doanything pixel by pixel.... The Patch Tool can often be used to eliminate the repeating patterns caused by careless cloning. It is almost always better to use a QM if you can.

How can you - for want of a better word - disguise the repeat?

Either the Patch Tool or a new QM or a QM and warp of the area. I am pretty sure that it is all in Digital Basics.

[Peter Kes]

Thanks Peter, The interesection looks better but I cannot say that the rock itself is a big improvement. I guess that the lesson is to get it right in the field...

Right sir, it is a fiddle work as mentioned, but with the material you have perhaps you can do a better job than I did. For me, the ratio field/pp effort is 50/50. Field work is equally important as postprocessing. Having said that, failures in the field are very hard to correct in the 'Lab'.

[Arthur Morris]

Hi Jay - no I don't, but I am working with a reduced image size. I can do better with the original size. As Arthur pointed out, he took stuff from another image to get the nails: there might be material to get this rock surface back in shape as well. I, as you rightfully point out, am acutely aware of repetitive patterns. I often use the flip techique: take a part from a similar looking part of the image and flip it horizontally or vertically before applying it to my 'work area', so avoiding obvious repetitive patterns.

Here is the toe source image. Not much rock to use....

[Peter Kes]

I don't give up. I used your 2 orig files and did manage to come up with this. I repaired the skin/rock in the second (yawn) from your first (not yawn) image, from the part just behind the elbow of the right foot. I started from scratch.

[John Ippolito]

Outstanding capture with the open mouth and the apparent saliva strands. The work on the clipped toes is something I hadn't noticed studying the first post, and Peter's last one looks pretty spot on at this resolution.

[Arthur Morris]

Hi Peter, I must be denser than I thought. I do remember typing a response to your post in pane 18 but I guess that I never hit "Post Quick Reply."

IAC, the repost in pane 18 is dead perfect. How the heck did you do "the rock repair"?

[David Fletcher]

Hi Artie. Been away a bit. Thanks for your comments. Repost looks darn good. Re the contrast thing, perhaps my thinking was unclear and wasn't able to express myself accurately. Basically, this has color and greater contrast to help it pop, whereas the earlier post of Iguana's were more uniform in color and lacking that extra element.

Good to hear your thoughts on posting too,

[Peter Kes]

Hi Peter, I must be denser than I thought. I do remember typing a response to your post in pane 18 but I guess that I never hit "Post Quick Reply."

IAC, the repost in pane 18 is dead perfect. How the heck did you do "the rock repair"?

As said, I started form scratch, using your _10J.. images, first adding a bit of canvas to the bottom. Then I repaired the oof rock and added rock in the added canvas, using material from the first image (first image=no yawn, second image=yawn), from behind the righthand's little finger: in the first image you have lot more continuous rock to work with. I was not worried too much about the skin/rock intersection still. Second, I took the skin/rock intersection from the first image, from just behind the elbow, moved it to the left, aligned and placed it with the transform utility. Then, repaired the two toes, one at a time, with a little bit of rock, as they were not of exact same proportions, using the Transform Tool to align and scale them properly.

The last part of the cleanup was at the right side, where the bright rock intersects with the bg. And at the top right part of the bg, removing the dark area (and applying some gaussian).

The final touch came from looking at repetitive patterns and rock intersections looking a bit poor or showing sharp clone edges from the QM selection, getting them out with a small clone stamp. I do remember to have at least one selection from the first image that I flipped vertically in the second.

Note that all selections are QuickMask selections from the first image into the second. All (partial) selections are thrown in their own layer. My work file contained some 30 layers at a given moment. I could at any time, select a particular layer and use the eraser tool to some extend to remove what was either too much or looking funny.

Finally, some selective colors (darkening the neutrals) flattening and cropping.