[Matty]

Not the red ones, but i still had to bait them with nuts and lay on my fat belly!


Adjusted levels and sharpening only

this one is a crop off a larger image


Tiny bit of light from the back shows the fur nicely, wasnt sunny enough though


like this one nearly the most


My favourite, he ran up a tree to scoff his nut, but the nearest tree was only little, so standing under it with the 70-300 he was easy prey, lol




Comments and suggestions very welcome. these are the first shots ive done outside in RAW

[CT]

Nce shots Matty! They're all good but I particularly like the last one - shame you couldn't blur the background more but I love the composition. That shot looks like it would benefit from a bit more contrast and still stand some sharpening. The colour balance seems a little on the cool side, I'd warm it up a little.

Is it a crop? Can you crop it so Cyril isn't centre frame but more lower left, with the branch creating a strong diagonal across the frame. I think this shot has real potential with a bit of work.

[IanC_UK]

What CT says !

Brilliant shots Matt !

[Matty]

that works better CT, i will have a go at it

[Matt]

Matty, you have captured some good shots here and they have the potential to be great shots.
I would spend a bit more time with the post processing as your letting yourself down.

Do you know how to use the levels tool, and how to sharpen your image?
Thats all thats needed to make these image stand out.

1, 3 & 4 after the processing just need a slight crop of the right hand side to balance the images.
No. 2 I would have waited for the squirrel to flick up it tail, other than that a little more room to the right is needed.
This can bee added in by making the canvas bigger, then cloning in the grass.

If you want I can show you what can be done in less than a minute.
Do I have permission to post one of your images?

[Matty]

Matt do whatever you need to do m8!

I know my post processing sucks...im rubbish at it

[Matt]

Ok mate, here's how I get from the out of the camera image, to the finished article.

Levels
The first thing to do is adjust the levels.
I do this by using an adjustment layer, this doesn't actually alter the original image but applies a layer over the top that shows the changes.

Goto Layer> New Adjustment Layer> Levels.


A small box will open for you to name your layer, just click OK.


Now the levels window will open.


As you can see the levels mountain is central, but there's space between the foot of the mountain and the black/white point markers. Move the black/white point markers in to the foot of the mountain.
Now select the grey dropper tool, you will use this to select a neutral grey from your image, this will balance the colour for the whole image. I've selected one of the dark areas on the back of the subjects neck.
You can experiment with this to get different finishes, but it is aimed at getting the neutral finish.

Click ok.

Now you'll need to do another levels adjustment layer, but first make a selection with the 'Rectangular Marquee Tool', this can be found at the top left of the tools palette. The selection will need to be feathered to soften the edges made with the adjustment, I've used 20 pixels for this image as the pixel count is low.


In the above image you'll need to ignore the red arrow for the moment.
The bottom 3/4 need to be brightened up so make a selection as shown above.
Now to stop the white stomach area highlights being blown out, select the 'Subtract from selection' icon (red arrow,don't forget to reset this when you've finished).
Make a selection over the white area on the squirrels stomach.

Your now ready to make the levels adjustment.

Goto Layer> New Adjustment Layer> Levels.


As you can see from the above image you will need to move the white point marker into the foot of the mountain.
Click OK.

Now you need to flaten the image. Goto Layer> Flatten Image.

Dodge Tool
You can use the dodge tool to lighten up the squirrels face.


Set the exposure in the toolbar to 10%, make the brush about the same size as the squirrels eye.
Brush over its face a few times just to lighten it a little. This will also help lift the eye.

Sharpening
This has been covered quite a lot on this site and a lot of photography sites on the WWW.

Goto Image> Mode> Lab Colour.
Click on the Channels tab in the layers palette, then select the lightness channel.

Goto Filter> Shrapen> Unsharp Mask.
Enter the following> Amount: 100> Radius: 0.2> Threshold: 0
Then click ok, apply this upto 5 times.

Change back the colour space to RGB.
Goto Image> Mode> RGB Colour.

Crop and Save your image.

Now you should have the finished article, see below for comparisons.



HTH

Matt

[IanC_UK]

Ooooh useful ! maybe needs to be in the tutorials section !

[Matty]

blinking marvelous

I think i need to really concentrate on this, i always think my images look a bit flat and not as colourful and lively as everyone elses, hopefully this will help alot!

thanks Matt, makes the shot so much more GOOD!

[dod]

Nice shots to begin and great post processing. I've saved this for future use

[Matty]

if Matt has no objection i will copy/paste to a new tutorial about Post Processing

[Matt]

No objections from me mate, isn't this why we're here?
To help each other.

[CT]

Good job Matt. You mentioned widening the shot on the left by cloning the grass, which is a nightmare as far as the sharp foreground grass is concerned and you'd never do it convincingly.

I've widened the pic with a technique I've only just discovered and it's ideal for difficult to clone textures like grass.



I've done it in PSP but the principles are the same in Photoshop.

(1) Increase the canvas size then crop the pic so that you have the extra (blank) space on the left.

(2) Using the rectangular mask tool select an area on the left of the pic which corresponds to the size of your blank space.

(3) Promote the selection (mask) to a (floating) layer.

(4) Using the layer deformation tool, stretch the selection to the left until it fills the blank space.

(5) Flatten (Combine) the layers

(6) Save your pic.

There's a limit to the backgrounds you can use this with and how far you can stretch the pic, but it's extremely useful when you want get your subject off centre.

[IanC_UK]

Originally Posted by Matt

No objections from me mate, isn't this why we're here?
To help each other.

Thats the attitude that keeps me coming back !

[Paul B]

Great pics, I'm jealous, must get a new lens. Come to think of it after my accident a working lens would be nice.

[Matt]

CT, its quite easy using the vanishing point in PS CS2.

[CT]

The duplication jumps out at you though Matt.

Although you could probably hide it with a little local cloning.

[Matt]

Yes it does, this was just to show how easy it is.
That one blade of grass gives it away.