Big Brother & Little Brother - Grasshoppers

[Geoff F]

A couple of juvenile Meadow Grasshoppers, of different ages, sharing the same leaf.



Working amongst the grass, I couldn't quite get everything in sharp focus. But there is just something about this scene which appeals to me.

[Otavio]

Very nice, Geoff. I liked the composition and clean background. Regards,

[Shadowman]

Nice capture.

[bnnrcn]

Very nice composition Geoff. I think the dark shadow on the left is a bit distracting. IMO you can improve the image some more with PP. It is not an image just to put aside. It has very nice details

[deetheturk]

Nice capture Geoff, we have loads of them here at the moment!

[Downrigger]

there is just something about this scene which appeals to me.

Me too. Nice image and good entomology to boot.

[Geoff F]

Well it was something of a quick 'let's give it a try and see what happens' sort of shot without much hope of success, so I'm reasonably pleased with the overall appearance, even if it is well away from perfection.

Darkening bright areas is all very well, Binnur, but selective brightening of the background, and still looking natural, is a different matter.

But I will see what happens.

[Geoff F]

Well I've had a bit of a mess around with the dark background area. Not sure if it is working, I can still see some bad blends; but perhaps I know where to look.

[vaez]

geffo f nice image and title

[ajohnw]

There is a GIMP toy you can play with on this shot Brian. Iterative Refocus aka blind deconvolution. It's under filters - enhance. I'd suggest starting with a radius of 1 and slowly increasing by 0.25 steps until you are happy with the result but be prepared to take some time at it as each takes a while to run. I used 1.75 on this one and feel it's probably a bit too much. There is also a smoothing setting. Not used this tool much so can't make any suggestions. I suspect altering the default may mess things up. Despite some peoples feeling on this sort of thing it can be amazing what an image processing specialist can do with this technique. Trouble is it takes a lot and I do mean a lot of experience. GIMP's simplified the process really and it's ever so slow even with a tiny preview.



If you look closely at the original it has brought up detail that should be there.

I also did something else which you should always check. The image was rather flat. Opened levels and noted that the histogram was well short of both ends so move the black and white pointers close to each of the ends. There usually wont be any need to touch the centre pointer as it will adjust automatically but sometimes slight changes will be beneficial. The amount of contrast added can be altered by leaving more space between the pointers and the ends of the histogram but try to keep it even.

The biggest effect by far is the deconvolution. This technique can even be used to remove some types of lens aberrations.

John
-

[ajohnw]

Sorry Geoff - don't know how but thought this was a Brian post. Thought the image was unusually big - sorry etc.

John
-

[JBW]

Sorry Geoff - don't know how but thought this was a Brian post. Thought the image was unusually big - sorry etc.

John
-

I do post a lot of grasshopper shots

[Geoff F]

It was a somewhat subdued light down amongst the grass so I left it in that manner, although it has possibly lost a little of the original 'shine' after resizing and uploading.

But if you want a little more zap, John.

Firstly using an Adjustment Layer with the Blend Mode set to Soft Light at 50%. I used a Curves Layer but any adjustment layer option will work just the same because I didn't adjust anything except the blend mode. We have been discussing Layer Blend Modes elsewhere.



And another option, a little bit of Local Contrast Enhancement using Unsharp Mask. I used 30% amount and a radius of 40 but both these amounts are variable.



I thought the adjustment would be a fraction on the harsh side so I first created a duplicate layer from the background image and applied LCE to the layer. Then a reveal all mask which I edited slightly to remove some of the harshness from the leaves.

[bnnrcn]

Hi Geoff. Sorry for being late Your last edit looks very nice with lively colours and it is also sharper. I didn't know dealing BGs was so problematic because I haven't tried such a thing yet