Posted by Barbara Graham on January 23, 2017 at 10:00 PM
I was working on this again tonight for the first time, and I did more CW rotation and lightened the reflection of the bird's body.
Then I started working on evening out the background, and I used the eyedropper to get a color from the water and then used the paintbrush on Soft Light to see what happened. I ended up making it lighter than it was, but maybe I like it like that, I'm not sure. Could you guys tell me what you think? Is the background too light, or does it look good like this? (And I did remember to save it with another name.)
Here is the link to the one I posted originally in the Avian Gallery:
Posted by Kathy Barnhart on January 23, 2017 at 10:14 PM
Hi Barbara,
I much prefer this one to the previous posting. I like the larger amount of space around the wings...it just gives the bird more room to show off those gorgeous wing feathers. And I like the lighter look of this. You still have the reflection, which is nice, but the water is just a plain background, allowing the bird to really shine. Great job!
Posted by Lon Overacker on January 24, 2017 at 1:28 AM
Barbara,
I just have to comment here. Your original image is a fabulous nature image. This image here... is a photographic work of art. You have literally transformed the original capture in to a work of art. Your processing is flawless here and I never could have believed this image was a derivative of the original. The relative brightness of the background vs. the egret... I think is perfectly balanced. I can't get over how impressive this is; processed and Photo-shopped to the extent that no one would know... which is ultimately the goal. You have succeeded in spades. This is just simply a beautiful photographic work of art. I can't emphasize that enough.
Discussion
6 repliesThen I started working on evening out the background, and I used the eyedropper to get a color from the water and then used the paintbrush on Soft Light to see what happened. I ended up making it lighter than it was, but maybe I like it like that, I'm not sure. Could you guys tell me what you think? Is the background too light, or does it look good like this? (And I did remember to save it with another name.)
Here is the link to the one I posted originally in the Avian Gallery:
http://www.naturephotographers.net/imagecritique/ic.cgi?a=vp&pr=240914&CGISESSID=a9eaf11e07b8d06c5885b6d25cd0fa59&u=22059&title_action=
Thank you for any further feedback.
I much prefer this one to the previous posting. I like the larger amount of space around the wings...it just gives the bird more room to show off those gorgeous wing feathers. And I like the lighter look of this. You still have the reflection, which is nice, but the water is just a plain background, allowing the bird to really shine. Great job!
I just have to comment here. Your original image is a fabulous nature image. This image here... is a photographic work of art. You have literally transformed the original capture in to a work of art. Your processing is flawless here and I never could have believed this image was a derivative of the original. The relative brightness of the background vs. the egret... I think is perfectly balanced. I can't get over how impressive this is; processed and Photo-shopped to the extent that no one would know... which is ultimately the goal. You have succeeded in spades. This is just simply a beautiful photographic work of art. I can't emphasize that enough.
Lon