redstart-female

[drjskatre]

canon 450d,tamron 200-500, focal length 375mm,f/5.6, 1/125,iso-200

[jiro]

Good composition and the detail is there. Good shot!

[RockNGoalStar]

Hey DrJSkatre, do you have achristian name we can call you? You can add this to your profile so that it shows up next to your avatar on the left.

I love the shot. It's very sharp and beautifully composed.

i hope you don't mind, but I took the liberty of playing about with it slightly in Photoshop to try to make it 'sing' a little bit more as I felt it was lacking in contrast slightly...



What I did was apply Jiro's Dodge and Burn Technique to add some contrast. I then masked that layer so that it was only applied to the bird and the twig and dropped the opacity down to about 75%. I also added a slight S-Curve and reduced the saturation of the background a touch.

You may not agree that this is an improvement as I think it is very much a personal preference, but I like the added contrast.

Great shot and I hope to see a lot more from you!

[jiro]

I like your edit, Tommy. Nice work.

[RockNGoalStar]

Thanks Willie... I also made this before and after animation just to show the difference as i thought it wasn't massively obvious...

[jiro]

If you may entertain an extra suggestion, I would use the darkened background but make the bird a little bit brighter so the viewer's eye would be pinned just on the bird most of the time.

[RockNGoalStar]

If you may entertain an extra suggestion, I would use the darkened background but make the bird a little bit brighter so the viewer's eye would be pinned just on the bird most of the time.

I really hope that drjskatre doesn't mind me playing around with his bird like this

What do you think to this one...

[jiro]

Yeah, I'm a little bit concerned about it, too that drjskarte might find us a bit intrusive. My one last comment is that you back off a little bit on the saturation. I love the extra detail but I want to preserve the subtle colors from the original. The darkened background helps but be selective on your contrast application. Just a thought.

[RockNGoalStar]

Shall we delete all our posts?

[jiro]

Shall we delete all our posts?

Let's wait for drjskarte's reply. Basically I find his shot really good. For me, all it needs is a little sharpening on the bird and a little bit of brightening. Something in this direction:

[RockNGoalStar]

In future I promise not to use other peoples' photos for my own personal post-production education.

Nice edit though Willie

[jamn4ex]

Personally I like it when you gurus edit my images,thats how I have been learning.dr skates doing some nice birds, keep posting

[drjskatre]

hello friends,
i don't really mind playing around with images posted by me...after all it is a small copy and not original, and i also learn from such experiments,.
...i used to do such editing in the past to get better results, but now-a-days i prefer only slightly increasing contrast, sharpness and adjustments in white balance. i try to compose more carefully so that i don't have to use tools like cloning etc.....but i do agree, it is just my personal liking and using photoshop to improve image is not at all wrong.