Preening Flamingo

[Bm7b5]

Here is one of the images that I like.

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Rick,

I note from your intro you are not into doing too much PP work, therefore I thought I'd ask before I took the above shot and spent 5, maybe 10, minutes on it with my incredibly basic PP skills and PS Elements 6 to see if I can trun it into something better(?) - but you can be the judge of that.

I think there are certain things you have no control over at the time of capture that can make a good picture better in PP, the only risk to you is you might get bitten by the PP bug.

Shall I have a go?

Regards,

[Bm7b5]

Hi Rick,

I note from your intro you are not into doing too much PP work, therefore I thought I'd ask before I took the above shot and spent 5, maybe 10, minutes on it with my incredibly basic PP skills and PS Elements 6 to see if I can trun it into something better(?) - but you can be the judge of that.

I think there are certain things you have no control over at the time of capture that can make a good picture better in PP, the only risk to you is you might get bitten by the PP bug.

Shall I have a go?

Regards,

By all means Dave, have a go at it.

You are obviously right about PP enhancements, but I am a long time computer science guy, and one of the beauties of photography is getting me away from the keyboard and cpu.

So I will resist the sirens call for as long as I can, cause if I'm at the keyboard anyway, I might as well be playing HL-2.

[Dave Humphries]

OK, it was a quick job, not convinced myself, may be an even tighter crop?

Ricks_flamingo.jpg

Ricks_flamingo_ed1.jpg

If you open both attachments, you can then flick between them with Previous/Next.

Cheers Rick,

[Bill44]

I like the second crop, it gets rid of some background distraction and brings the rule of thirds more into play for the flamingo's head.

[Bm7b5]

Yes, I would agree that cropping improves the image quite a bit.

The sharpening didn't hurt either.

[Dave Humphries]

Thanks Rick,

Also did selective blur, sponge desaturate and dodging, on backround birds to reduce their impact.
Plus a local contrast enhance USM on the subject before the final USM sharpen.

I stuck to the 10 minute rule, I should have used layers, but would have slowed me down as I'm still learning them.

Cheers,