Helen Warnod
February 2021 - Small Snack
Original
About the Image(s)
Image name: Small snack
Gear: Canon 6D Mark II, 400mm, hand held
Details: Manual, ISO 100, f/8, 1/40sec
I was sitting on my camp chair trying to take a decent photo of a Kookaburra in a tree. Unfortunately, it was an overcast day and the bird was high up and it was silhouetted. I gave up waiting and had just put my camera into the van when I heard a thump on the ground in front and I realized the bird had attacked something on the ground. I jumped up grabbed my camera as it flew up into the trees. Luckily it chose a branch with a tree behind.
I did not have much time to change settings, but I fiddled a bit. I had previously it set to burst mode. This was the best shot of the mouse, as it was flailing wildly.
I cropped into the shot and to feature the mouse. I sharpened a little and stepped the colour down a bit. I find the background colour a bit too strong, but I am unsure what I can do if I want to submit into Wildlife/Nature. Any suggestions would be gratefully received.
12 comments posted
The bird itself is a bit soft, but a 400mm lens hand held 1/40 sec is a big ask. I've sharpened with High Pass filter and blend mode soft light, then added a levels layer and hit auto, then hue/saturation and reduced green and yellow a tad to make the bird stand out a bit more.
Posted: 02/03/2021 07:12:26
"No techniques that add, relocate, replace, or remove pictorial elements except by cropping are permitted."
"Techniques that enhance the presentation of the photograph without changing the nature story or the pictorial content, or without altering the content of the original scene, are permitted including HDR, focus stacking and dodging/burning."
So for me sharpening is allowed.
Posted: 02/05/2021 04:07:37
Posted: 02/09/2021 09:33:05
I have an admission to make, I can't find a High Pass filter thingo anywhere. I need a High Pass filter 101 lesson!
I have Photoshop, Lightroom and Topaz, but, sadly I cant work this one out. Can you assist please? Posted: 02/18/2021 02:16:21
Using Photoshop, first copy the layer you want to sharpen so its non-destructive.
On the copy layer go to Filter, Other, High Pass. You get a muddy looking image and an option for Radius, play with the setting to get happy but I always use 10, click OK.
On this same layer I then use Image, Adjustments, Black and White and go through the Presets to get different looks, which will all affect the final sharpening, so try them out.
If there's an area you don't want to sharpen then use the dropper tool to pick a mid grey and then paint that area to be plain grey, it doesn't need to be that precise.
On the Layers panel, change the Blending Mode to Soft Light and it should be instant non-destructive sharpening. Using Hard Light sharpens more but adds to the risk of halos.
If you think the sharpening is too much, reduce the Opacity of this layer to suit.
Have fun :)
Posted: 02/18/2021 06:14:32