Adjust Female Cardinal's brightness and contrast

Sigma 18-125mm f/3.5-5.6 DC for Canon

02/22/2007 12:28:14 PM · #1

As luck would have it this opportunity came with the sun near the back of the subjects. Too far away for fill flash help.

Suggestion on adjusting the female cardinal's appearance would be helpful. I do like the DOF

Thanks
Bob

adine

Canon EOS-10D

02/22/2007 01:54:15 PM · #2

I used shadow/highlight in photoshop - tonned down the shaddows and dimmed the highlights - and also dodged around the lower part of the eye to make it pop more. Did some neatimage to smooth things out because the processing created some roughness in this low resolution version.

I like the DOF too.
Fun capture!

I forgot - I used selective color to pop out the reds and yellows too..

Message edited by author 2007-02-22 13:55:27.

nova

Canon EOS-6D

Canon EF 35mm f/1.4L USM

02/22/2007 02:06:52 PM · #3

I'm not sure I did much to help! Cropped and adjusted levels, burned and tweaked hues and saturations, increasing slightly on the cardinal and decreasing elsewhere. Added a hint of a 'catchlight' in her eye as well.

TCGuru

Canon EOS-40D

Canon EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM

02/22/2007 02:41:20 PM · #4

Here's my go:

I selected the naturally brightest colour out of her feathers and painted it over again on everything that had that colour in it.

Then I blurred the bg juuuuust a hair more and did a warming photo filter.

Then, I played with the channel mixer to kill the colours in the bg juuuust a bit more and with the history brush set to the last step, painted over the bird.

Hope ya like it :)

Tamron SP AF 28-75mm f/2.8 XR Di for Pentax

02/23/2007 05:46:47 PM · #5

Thanks everyone for you helpful comments and post processing work on the photo.

I am using PS elements 5.0 and post processed the original photo:

crop
usm
extrated cardinal using magic wand
cut to level
process on main background
level soft light
level screen
level color dodge
process on cardinal level
level soft light
level screen
clone
healing brush
save

filter through neat image

Hope you like the results
Comments welcome.

Artyste

Sony Ericsson W810i

02/23/2007 06:10:43 PM · #6

Just a quick and dirty example:

Didn't spend much time on it at all, but wanted to point out a few things.

I brought out the cardinal using a duplicate layer, and then adjusting the shadows/highlights to bring it out of the shadow it was in, then masked the background/foreground back to original (I did it the cheap way, but just painting everything back in, but people more involved with masking can probably help you out on those techniques, I haven't gotten into them much yet). The Shadows/Highlights tool isn't very difficult to use, and I like playing around with it.

I then added a bit of a blur to the background just to soften the noise out a little.

I then used the Selective Color tool.. primarily in the Red and Yellow channels, to bring out and deepen the color on the cardinal (and then used the sponge tool on the beak as it was a screaming red, and needed to be toned down). I did this step on the whole image, but again, you could use masking to just do it on the cardinal.. I found it didn't affect anything else too terribly much anyway.

Then I just used levels to brighten the overall photo up a bit (it's a little too bright on my monitor, but should look ok on most I think), and there you have it.

Not much different than the original, but has a touch more presence. Of course, I did all of this very quickly and without too much concern as I was just trying to show you what a simple enhancing of the bird itself can do. A little more time and effort on it could really help a lot more.

Anyway, it was fun to fool around with it.

Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM

02/23/2007 06:23:43 PM · #7

Originally posted by Artyste:

Thank's Artyste! The photo looks great on my monitor.

I played around with masking in Elements it seams very limited. Your correct shadows/highlightes tool is diffcult to use.

Again Thanks for you help. If you get some time please look at my portfolio, comments would be very helpful.

//www.dpchallenge.com/portfolio.php?USER_ID=18144

Marjo

Canon EOS-7D

02/23/2007 06:27:26 PM · #8

I think it just needs a little dodging around the face/eye.
The female's colors are pretty subtle. I wouldn't want to saturate it too much. I like your focus and the pose of the squirrel. Nice capture.
(I uploaded a cardinal & squirrel shot to my port if you're interested.)

Artyste

Sony Ericsson W810i

Tamron SP AF 28-75mm f/2.8 XR Di for Pentax

02/23/2007 06:34:26 PM · #9

Originally posted by Marjo:

I agree that the colors are more natural in the muted state, but showing *how* to boost them is good too.. for future reference if anything.

Marjo

Canon EOS-7D

Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM

02/23/2007 06:38:50 PM · #10

Yep, sure is helpful. Your version looks great, Artyste. I wish I could edit better. You explained it well.