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Advice please on this shot.... (post-processing)

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If you apply USM, go to EDit Fade Fade to Luminosity to avoid changing colours. If you apply levels first, tune USM settings down to 15-20-0 and start from there.

The thing is that the image is 1/2eV underexposed, and it is better to start with Levels/Curves (or, if it is RAW - exposure compensation in NC/ACR) to bring exposure to normal.

--
no text
 
Brilliant John,

my FreeBSD and Gimp days are over sadly - I will try to replicate it in photoshop. I like the bird you have somehow gave it some life and colour, the contrast in the grass is very nice as well - but the only thing I am not liking is the grass has lost it's freshness, in your final image the grass kind of looks old and near to death !!

I think I will try your steps but modified to bring in local contrast and try to retain the freshness in the grass.

But I would like to say, if I had not taken the photo and not experienced the actual scene with my own eyes - I think your final images looks great !!! it has mood !!! (what I am saying is it will make a great 8x12 print) :))

regards,
Tarkan
JohnInSJ said:
Hi

I'm addicted to The Gimp. Here's a walkthru that seems to work

Original



1) fix colors/levels
1a) tighten up black and white points in levels - note moved in
white and black ^ until they are in the main body of the histogram



Result



Better but a bit green - adjust the green curve to tone it down a bit



- note just pulled it
down a tad to clip the green peak
Result



Looking pretty good, but the bird isn't sharp - the grass is plenty
sharp
2) layer time
2a) dupliate the layer (didn't take a screen shot - sorry)
2b) in the top layer, add a layer mask, white (Full Opacity)
2c) paint with black color over the bird - should get something
like this



2d) Apply Unsharp Mask to the first layer, something like this



2e) flatten layers, save final result



Good, natural colors, sharp bird, natural looking grass.
It took less time to do this than it took to make this post (10
minutes or so)

Better?
Click to expand...
--
A Nikon D70 Owner
 
Interesting you say underexposed - I had a 1/3 ev boost curve loaded up, as well as using center weighted metering. I am pretty surprised you think it is still 1/2 stop under.

I will have to look at my curve selections again - do you think a 1/2 ev boost curve will be more suited for this kind of shoot?

regards,
Tarkan
Iliah Borg said:
If you apply USM, go to EDit Fade Fade to Luminosity to avoid
changing colours. If you apply levels first, tune USM settings down
to 15-20-0 and start from there.

The thing is that the image is 1/2eV underexposed, and it is better
to start with Levels/Curves (or, if it is RAW - exposure
compensation in NC/ACR) to bring exposure to normal.

--
no text
Click to expand...
--
A Nikon D70 Owner
 
It is not a matter of curves in camera - it is just underexposure. See the histogram is pretty far from the right edge?

--
no text
 
tarkan said:
Brilliant John,

my FreeBSD and Gimp days are over sadly - I will try to replicate
Click to expand...
I did it using The Gimp 2.0 on a windows 2000 box - you should be able to do everything (and more) in photoshop!
tarkan said:
it in photoshop. I like the bird you have somehow gave it some life
and colour, the contrast in the grass is very nice as well - but
the only thing I am not liking is the grass has lost it's
freshness, in your final image the grass kind of looks old and near
to death !!
Click to expand...
More green (or to be exact, less "less green") and mabe a lighter hand on the black point will do that. You can do it just in the layer for "grass" and keep the brown bird (ie, use the levels I outlined below) in the other layer.

In other words, dupe the image into two layers first - adjust one layer to get the grass the way you want, the other to get the bird color right. Then mask them back togeather (sharpen the bird a tad, but leave the grass as is)
tarkan said:
But I would like to say, if I had not taken the photo and not
experienced the actual scene with my own eyes - I think your final
images looks great !!! it has mood !!! (what I am saying is it will
make a great 8x12 print) :))
Click to expand...
Thanks! That's the problem with editing other people's photos - you should be able to tweak it so its much more like you saw - I had to go for what I imagined it looked like :)

The multiple layer approach seems to really work well when you're dealing with what is really two different pictures (subject, background) and you need to do something different color or sharpness adjustment-wise with each.

I didn't think this up (of course) but am only trying to get reasonably good at what I've read on several photoshop and gimp "how to" sites.

Good luck! Post what you finally come up with... it is a nice shot.

Only 3 more days until my d70 arrives...
 
Ok, I took a lil' wack at this image using NC. To duplicate this effect open image in NC. In LCH adjust the values to 39, 1, 217. In Curves adjust the values as follows. Red 242, Green 251, Blue 222. Color Booster set to nature 17. Save as a jpeg and open in PS and apply USM at the following values. 250, .3, 0, and then used edit/fade/luminosity.

This may sound like a lot but it took me longer to type this than to perform the changes. If you look at the changes I made the most dramatic was the contrast which I adjusted using LCH. I also adjusted the image in curves with the greatest alteration to the blue channel. These are kinda personal taste changes so some will like others will not. I opened the image in PS to adjust the USM. The settings I used grab onto the very fine detail and enhance the detail of the feathers etc.

mc



 
looked at the histogram, a bit baffled why the camera underexposed so much.

Had a look at the original file (un-cropped), and I noticed that the top right area was quite a bit brighter than the rest of the image - so I think the meter tried to adjust for this.

Looking at the shot, I think spot-metering would have achieved the correct exposure - but when you are trying to photograph a bird which is jumping about and only staying still for a couple of seconds at a time it's good enough!!

thanks,
Tarkan
Iliah Borg said:
It is not a matter of curves in camera - it is just underexposure.
See the histogram is pretty far from the right edge?

--
no text
Click to expand...
--
A Nikon D70 Owner
 
looks very close to what I want - I am at work at moment, and my monitor here is not as 'correct' as my monitor at home. I will try your steps out when I get home.

I will probably make a page with everyones recommendations and resulting image to make comparison easier.

Thanks,
Tarkan
pixel-pusher said:
Ok, I took a lil' wack at this image using NC. To duplicate this
effect open image in NC. In LCH adjust the values to 39, 1, 217.
In Curves adjust the values as follows. Red 242, Green 251, Blue
222. Color Booster set to nature 17. Save as a jpeg and open in
PS and apply USM at the following values. 250, .3, 0, and then
used edit/fade/luminosity.

This may sound like a lot but it took me longer to type this than
to perform the changes. If you look at the changes I made the most
dramatic was the contrast which I adjusted using LCH. I also
adjusted the image in curves with the greatest alteration to the
blue channel. These are kinda personal taste changes so some will
like others will not. I opened the image in PS to adjust the USM.
The settings I used grab onto the very fine detail and enhance the
detail of the feathers etc.

mc



Click to expand...
--
A Nikon D70 Owner
 
pixel-pusher said:
Ok, I took a lil' wack at this image using NC. To duplicate this
effect open image in NC. In LCH adjust the values to 39, 1, 217.
In Curves adjust the values as follows. Red 242, Green 251, Blue
222. Color Booster set to nature 17. Save as a jpeg and open in
PS and apply USM at the following values. 250, .3, 0, and then
used edit/fade/luminosity.
Click to expand...
 
I'd really like to thank everyone for showing different ways of achieving what I was after... I learnt a lot !! Thanks.

Finally, I settled for a mix of the idea's.

1st. Nikon Capture using the original NEF, used pixel-pushers idea's adjusted with LCH and Curves. Save as 16bit TIFF.

2nd. Cropped, applied a small amount of noise reduction (maybe too much)

3rd. Then the steps suggested by John, I masked out the bird, and applied quite a bit of USM just to the bird - I then used the Fade tool, and adjusted that to overlay / 60% (I found this increased the contrast in the bird, which I liked). So because using overlay did not apply enough sharpening to the edges, I applied some more USM to the bird.

4th. USM very slightly for the whole image.

regards,
Tarkan

 
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