Another Kooka

[Grumpy John]

Taken at Fingal Head a lonely Kooka. Cropped pretty heavily, but I like the framing.

[Toddyh]

I sharp enough for a crop John. I like the framing. The shadow on the blue part of the wing is a shame, but the well lit eye and beak makes this image.

[Grumpy John]

Thanks for the kind words Todd.
Another reason to learn the Dodge and Burn techniques.

[Grumpy John]

A bit of a play with the dodge tool.

[Toddyh]

An improvement but I think you've picked up some ghosting around the breast.

[Grumpy John]

How about now?

[Toddyh]

Yep that's better.

[Grumpy John]

Thanks for your input Todd, much appreciated. We may not have many contributors to this forum, but every one seems keen to help one another.

[wigz]

Lovely shot John but I think it suffers a little from the crop, but I'm viewing these on my TV (longish story) so nothing looks really sharp.

[Grumpy John]

Just an experiment.

[Isac]

Lovely colours in the Kooka shot John. What PP have you done?

[Grumpy John]

Lovely colours in the Kooka shot John. What PP have you done?

Thanks for the kind words Isac.
My PP is pretty basic unless I'm trying for a special effect.
1. Open image in ACR and:
a. check Enable Lens Correction
b. check Remove Chromatic Abberation
2. Decide if image would benefit from a crop, if so apply crop.
3. Apply whatever corrections I think will enhance the image.
The beauty of ACR is that it is non destructive and I can revisit the image at any time and change the settings.
4. Open the image in PS6 and apply whatever filters, effects, changes I think improve the image.

ACR settings for the kooka.


No other adjustments were made in ACR except for lens correction.

In Photoshop, at toddy's suggestion I used the dodge tool to bring out the highlights in the feathers and to reduce the shadow on the branch he was perched on.
I also used the Nik Sharpener Pro 3: (2) Output Sharpener and Nik Dfine 2. Both at default settings. I find that these two operations can make an image pop.
I'm not very adventurous when it comes to Photoshop, I have so much to learn.

Most of the colours were already there Isac, so it was an easy job.

[Isac]

All noted John. Thanks for that. Photoshop will get easier, the more you play with it. For D&B it's always good to copy the original to a new layer and set it's mode to Luminosity. Select Dodge - Shadows and at 30-50% opacity brush over the darker parts. Using the luminosity mode stops any oversaturation of the parts you are dodging.

[Grumpy John]

I always copy to a new layer, that way when I stuff things up I just drag the copied layer to the trash bin and start again.
Thanks for the tip on setting blend mode to luminosity.