[Geir Andersen]

I still have yet to post a "hello" post, but "popped my cherry " on a poker-post by Dave. (Yes, I'm a poker-fan, borderline freak..) Whenever I'm not with my camera I'm probably playing a game of poker.

Anyways, I very recently got my first DSLR (EOS 400D) and am trying to dust-off my photography hobby. I shoot in RAW, but PostProcessing is still a bit of a pickle though.

These are two different crops from an image I shot this weekend. 400D with the std. 18-55 kit-lens. Had to shoot through a window that was a bit "cloudy", but all-in-all I'm quite pleased, it's one of my very first bird shots.
(Btw: I shot using on-camera flash, through the window.)

18-55mm @ 55mm.
1/200th. sec and f5.6
ISO-100

This was the first crop I chose. Left a bit of air around the bird.


Cropped this one VERY close to the birds head and tail, because I felt the food caught too much attention.


As mentioned I'm still just touching the surface of PP, and I'm working on a laptop at the moment with a rather poor screen, so I'm not sure of the colours.
Sort of liked how the bird is almost "hiding" behind the bag, and the catchlight in the eye almost makes it look like it's looking right into the camera.

What would be the best crop here? Ideally it probably should have almost exclusively the bird, but this was the best I could get with the kit-lens. Felt like hours as I sat there waiting for a decent shot.

[Dabhand16]

Hi Geir - Welcome to Pixalo.

This is a very good shot given the conditions you were faced with, and you got good differential focus too.

I like the first shot rather than the tight crop. If you have editing software you could tone down the feeder and lift the bird a bit and maybe reduce the shadow the feeder has left on the bird from the flash. This would enhance the shot even more.

[Rob Barron]

I'm with Graham, definitely prefer the bird to have room to breathe so a looser crop is better. I rather like the fact we can't see his full face but we can see his eye as he works to get the nuts. Good work and welcome to Pixalo, great to see you are getting away from the poker table and into this wonderful hobby

I think the picture is a touch flat so the range of luminance could be more dynamic. I have just given it a tad extra here to see if you like it. Feel free to say even if you don't

Cheers,
Rob

[Geir Andersen]

Thank you both for great comments. Makes it "easier" to take the plunge and post something else at another time

As I made the first one, I felt that was good. Then I did the tight crop and I felt that was the best. When I saw them both at the same time here, I too felt the first one was the best crop.

Graham:
I have Photoshop CS2 so I'll search a bit around, and see if I can't pick up anything. Still don't know much of anything about PP, but trial and error . Hope I'll find some good tutorials online, as I don't have any PS books, and getting them are rather big investments over here. I've noticed the section with tutorials in here, I'll have to dig in.



Rob:
The photo looked flat on my laptop as well, but I didn't manage to "bring it to life" enough. Thought maybe the problem was in the screen, but aparently not . Your image brought the bird out so much better. (Mind letting me know what you did? ) Wondering how you took the colour out of the green net...

Thanks again for your comments and suggestions. They're greatly appreciated.

[Rob Barron]

Hi Geir,

It really wasn't difficult to bring the bird out, it's problem was that the range of shades did not go from black to white. This is what we usually refer to as the dynamic range. The whitest point in the photo was the white feathers around the head but it was a very off white shade. It took just two clicks to get the full range back so here is how....

Using the Curves tool (Ctrl+M) select the third 'eye dropper' which is the white point selection tool. Click on the part that should be white.

Now use the first eye-dropper, the black point selection and clicked on the black in the bird's eye, the darkest point in the picture.

You will see the colours come to life instantly because you have now stretched the range from fully black (0) to fully white (255).

To back the green netting off, just go to the Hue and Saturations tool (Ctrl+U). Change the drop down menu from the default 'Master' which affects all colours to Green. Now reduce the saturation and only the greens will be desaturated leaving the important colours like blue and yellow in the bird completely untouched.

I did a rough selection of the net with the lasso tool and feathered it by 10 pixels (Ctrl+Alt+D) so that there would be no obvious join. I then reduced the red saturation, the same way as reducing the green' and also a very slight adjustment of the lightness. That diffused the nuts a bit so that the bird was strong and held the eye's attention. I didn't want to back the nut bag off too much as it is an important part of the picture, just not as important as the bird.

There you go, hope that helps.
Cheers,
Rob

[Geir Andersen]

Wow, thanks Rob.
I just did this in Photoshop, and what a difference!
I was just sitting here smiling, laughing, happy as a kid during christmas.

This made it clear: I'm devoting the coming days to researching Photoshop, and playing around with different settings.

I'm rather new to this type of forum (though I'm an active member on at least 10 different forums), but I hope I managed to add rep. points. You certainly deserve it!

I forgot to decrease the Red saturation, and also to decrease the light before uploading to flickr, but still I think was much better. (Hard to see if the white area was too white on this laptop, but that is fixable, as I've used a layered PSD file.)

[Dabhand16]

Originally Posted by Geir Andersen

This made it clear: I'm devoting the coming days to researching Photoshop, and playing around with different settings.

Make that devoting the comming years and you will be nearer the mark!

[Geir Andersen]

Originally Posted by Dabhand16

Make that devoting the comming years and you will be nearer the mark!

Ain't that the truth.
Guess what I should have said was: Devoting the coming days to scratch the surface of PS.

Luckily I have a very good base into these types of software etc. as I'm a computer consultant by trade, and also some experience as a software developer. This will help speed up some of the process, but still I have a looong way to go .

[fionaB]

lovely shot geir i definately like the fist one better...... as to PS.. plenty folk here with lots of experience so im sure one of them will come up with an answer when u get stuck ( and u will..........lol we all do) there are also lots of tutorials to have a read thru in the tutorial section....... too lazy to get a link but its not hard to find

Fi

[Angela]

That really is a lovely shot Geir, the clarity of the features on the bird are amazing!

[Rob Barron]

I don't think rep points count when someone is new but they still show up as a comment and I am most grateful for your kind thought. Pixalo is a wonderful place to learn, no matter what levels we all are. I teach photoshop but I still elarn lots of new ideas from other members on here and I always hope that my own comments will help others to gain the same for themselves so i am delighted it did for you.

Feel free to shout if you are wanting to ask any questions. there is always someone here who can help out and if it is a point that seems to be needing coverage for a few people i am always happy to make little tutorials so ideas are very welcome

Have fun learning, that's what this should always be about and remember less experienced members can often teach things to more experienced people who maybe have become set in their ways and are doing things in a less effective way so never think you don't know enough to add comments. We all do and we all benefit

Cheers,
Rob

[Geir Andersen]

Thank you for the kind comments guys. It really helps a newbie out.

I'm sure I'll have lots of questions, and whatever I can't find an answer through, using the search, I'll ask in here.
Guess I have to become very active on here, so that when I get help, I can do or give something back.

Thanks again!