Posted by Scott Tilley on January 21, 2009 at 7:24 PM
One from today. He comes out to steal peanuts at the same time every day which is giving me problems with the harsh light in the foreground. Only tweaked levels and sharpened. Any Ideas for processing to improve the image appreciated.
No ideas, but I like the picture.
I just reminds me of a squirrel in our garden a few years ago.
Posted by Mike Smith on January 22, 2009 at 2:19 AM
there is a digital neutral density filter effect that you can use. Procedure in Photoshop is
Duplicate layer
desaturate to B&W
invert image in layer
apply 5% gaussian blur
change layer mode to overlay
[adjust % overlay opacity to taste to remove garish colouring]
To get to this result I did the procedure twice, first overlay at 100% opacity, flatten image and then repeated at 50% opacity.
The process significantly reduces contrast and can be usefull to lift dark shadows, but at risk of increasing noise artefacts that weren't immediately obvious in the shadow areas
It depends on how far you want to go... here is a quickand dirty try for you...
New layer... Shadow/highlight to increase detail in the shadow areas, layer mask added to confine the effect to the rodent, then a final tweak of the levels to improve the contrast in the rodent again masked to confine the effect...
Yup, agree with John try fill-in. If you get that then you may be onto something much stronger !
nicely done to begin with though.
Drew
Posted by Scott Tilley on January 22, 2009 at 9:25 AM
Hi Guys, thank you all for your suggestions. Managed to have another go this lunchtime. Overcast at first so the sun not a problem, also had a go with fill flash, then the sun did break through but managed to get a slightly higher angle to remove some of the bright foreground. Also did a bit of gardening to remove any distracting grass etc. Will post result when I;ve had a look through.
1. A bit of surreptitious gardening,.
2. Use of a reflector to throw directional light into the recess.
3. Shading the area directly in front of the recess.
These would be my immediate thoughts. I think I would also opt for a gold reflector to start with, tends to be warmer to my eye.
You have a good foundation to work from here, just visualise in your minds eye the image you want and you will get there. I’m sure you will learn a lot from this exercise.
Discussion
8 repliesCanon 10d Sigma 50-500 @500
1/60 F6.7
I just reminds me of a squirrel in our garden a few years ago.
Duplicate layer
desaturate to B&W
invert image in layer
apply 5% gaussian blur
change layer mode to overlay
[adjust % overlay opacity to taste to remove garish colouring]
To get to this result I did the procedure twice, first overlay at 100% opacity, flatten image and then repeated at 50% opacity.
The process significantly reduces contrast and can be usefull to lift dark shadows, but at risk of increasing noise artefacts that weren't immediately obvious in the shadow areas
Mike
New layer... Shadow/highlight to increase detail in the shadow areas, layer mask added to confine the effect to the rodent, then a final tweak of the levels to improve the contrast in the rodent again masked to confine the effect...
HTH
Phil
Gotta love those long whiskers
nicely done to begin with though.
Drew
Scott
2. Use of a reflector to throw directional light into the recess.
3. Shading the area directly in front of the recess.
These would be my immediate thoughts. I think I would also opt for a gold reflector to start with, tends to be warmer to my eye.
You have a good foundation to work from here, just visualise in your minds eye the image you want and you will get there. I’m sure you will learn a lot from this exercise.