# Anybody wanna give it a try?



## 11P&YBOWHUNTER (Jan 11, 2009)

With the amount of high quality photographers on here, would anyone want to try editing the pic below?  I tried to get it as picture perfect as i could but i never was into the digital photo editing much so i am a novice to say the least.  If you want a full sized picture to work with i can email it to you.

  I was just thinking it would be neat to see the differences in what everyone did.


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## JasonF (Jan 11, 2009)

I gave it a shot but the hardest part was trying to figure out what to fix as the original you posted was pretty darn good IMO.  Even when I put it into Photoshop, the Histogram looked good.

If there is some real improvment to be made, I'm sure others on this forum might be a little more inclined to get the job done for you.

Anyway, here's what I came up with...

I started with reducing the brightness in the branch at the lower right corner, increased the saturation in the feathers a tad, sharpeded the beek, eye, and eye patch, and finally burned out some of the trees in the background to isolate the bird a bit more.


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## 11P&YBOWHUNTER (Jan 11, 2009)

Awesome Jason...the blue in the feathers is strikingly impressive in yours compared to mine.  Totally Awesome!!!!  Can not wait to see what others come up with!


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## Smokey (Jan 11, 2009)

I'll give it a shot.
It might be later on this evening before I get it posted.
Like Jason said, nothing wrong with the original.
Beautiful Shot.


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## Smokey (Jan 11, 2009)

Okay, heres my shot at it.
The picture was very good to begin with.


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## rip18 (Jan 11, 2009)

Well - here's my version...  I probably spent 10 minutes or more working on the low resolution version - though in "real life", I hate to spend over 3 minutes with the "master" version of an image.   Great image to start with - it is always neat to see how other folks approach workflow...

The most important thing to me was eye contact (though it wasn't the first thing that I worked on...).  I ended up making his iris an un-natural brighter blue than it really was and putting in a 100% black pupil and little tiny artificial catchlight...

But the first thing I did was try to enhance the saturation of the bird a tad while bringing more detail out in the feathers.  I didn't bring as much detail in the feathers out as I would have liked - especially in the reds - I think more could be brought out in a higher resolution file.  I used a separate layer to boost the saturation & detail a bit and then blended them using an overlay blend.

Then I "got rid" some of the brighter blue parts of the sky that sucked my eye away from the bird, and darkened most of the background & the brighter parts of the perch.

Then I did my "eye" work as masked layer (affecting only the eye) - played with hue, saturation, brightness, and the blue and green levels adjustments.  Flattened it and painted on a black pupil and a tiny white catchlight.

Then I used yet another levels layer adjustment to bring out some detail on the black & ivory parts of the beak & mandible.

Then I tried to sharpen the detail a bit more, but with the low resolution file, I didn't do much there...


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## Hoss (Jan 11, 2009)

Since I never seem to get out to get my own photos much lately, I figure why not take up the offer to work on someone photo.


Here's my version.  I tend to like photos a bit darker, so I worked on the colors adding saturation and then making them darker.  Did some work on the eye similar to Rip18's.  Then selected the background a used a Gaussian blur to eliminate things that distracted from the bird.  Finally added a frame.

Don't know that I'd call it improvements cause it was a mighty fine shot to start with.

Hoss


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## TXR (Jan 11, 2009)

OK this is what I ended up with.  Did not see anything wrong with the original.  However after seeing everyone's work just posted (after I edited my version) I love the eye work you guys did.  Anyways, mine has a very different take.  As I said I liked the original so I figured I would go back to something I learned in a magazine and retry the effect here.  It is done using masks.  Since I use elements 5 I had to first make a level layer with no adjustments.  Then create a fill layer (filled white) and group it with the newly created layer.  Then reduced opacity of that new white layer to see the pic so I could work on it.  Selected the levels layer and using the polygonal tool created the shape.  Deselect the selection and then fill it with black to bring back the image.  Next fill that with black and use a regular brush with black and painted back in the top of the head. Now back to the white layer and created another basic layer and reselect to get the shape selected again.  Choose stroke selection and about 30px outside option to make a border in white.  Created another layer of that and used ctrl I to inverse that selection.  Thats it!  LOL  I know thats alot.  I had to use the recipe from the magazine tutorial to remember the effect.  Hope you like.

Tom


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## bigkga69 (Jan 11, 2009)

TXR said:


> OK this is what I ended up with.  Did not see anything wrong with the original.  However after seeing everyone's work just posted (after I edited my version) I love the eye work you guys did.  Anyways, mine has a very different take.  As I said I liked the original so I figured I would go back to something I learned in a magazine and retry the effect here.  It is done using masks.  Since I use elements 5 I had to first make a level layer with no adjustments.  Then create a fill layer (filled white) and group it with the newly created layer.  Then reduced opacity of that new white layer to see the pic so I could work on it.  Selected the levels layer and using the polygonal tool created the shape.  Deselect the selection and then fill it with black to bring back the image.  Next fill that with black and use a regular brush with black and painted back in the top of the head. Now back to the white layer and created another basic layer and reselect to get the shape selected again.  Choose stroke selection and about 30px outside option to make a border in white.  Created another layer of that and used ctrl I to inverse that selection.  Thats it!  LOL  I know thats alot.  I had to use the recipe from the magazine tutorial to remember the effect.  Hope you like.
> 
> Tom




YOU COPIED ME!!!


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## TXR (Jan 11, 2009)

bigkga69 said:


> YOU COPIED ME!!!



Easy!


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## 11P&YBOWHUNTER (Jan 11, 2009)

Sorry i could not fire off an email with the original photo...for some reason my google email is acting up and i can not send emails...

Will try tomorrow.

Everyone did excellent and as i said, i am not the best at editing photos and after seeing how everyone else did,...i am going to have to try and learn a bit more.  


TXR, jumping out of the page like that is awesome!  I never saw a pic like that and i think it is different, and really cool!

The eyes that Hoss and Rip18 did is really neat too!!  I never really paid much attention to that but i understand now that the eyes make a big different because looking at them two pics, the eyes JUMP out at you...

Hoss, you need to teach me how to do a border like that!


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## leo (Jan 12, 2009)

As has been said .... it’s a nice pic as posted, and working with the reduced resolution limits what can be done. 

I think it is kind of interesting how all of us seem to do/see it a bit different …

I did most of the enhancing to the background area … primarily using levels to do some hi light reduction and made the background a bit darker/flatter, trying to make the subject stand out a bit more..
I also tried to enhance the eye with more of a grayish color.
Then I did a small amount of shadow reduction, sharpening and color enhancement of the subject.


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## hummdaddy (Jan 12, 2009)

*here is my vision , but nice pic for sure without us touchin it*


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## JasonF (Jan 12, 2009)

I really like how Rip brought out the details in the mouth. 
Those eye colors are cool too!!


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## rip18 (Jan 12, 2009)

Good job, y'all.  It would be cool to overlay them all as layers & bring out the best of each!  I really like the treatment that TXR gave it - very creative (even if the idea did come out of a magazine!  I always look to other photographs for creativity because I sure don't have much!).  

Well, the high-resolution version was waiting in my e-mail this morning - thanks 11P&YBOWHUNTER.

I was able to salvage more detail that had been messed up by my color management on the high resolution version.  The only things that I did differently were: 1) I had more control over selecting things because they were larger (more pixels), 2) I cropped the image down a bit more, and 3) I was able to sharpen it as part of a resizing process(perhaps too much, but did it anyway to show the detail a bit better).  I'm still not happy with the tad of oversaturation in the reds, but I didn't spend any more time working on it...

As a side note - most of what I did in Photoshop could have been done in camera by using an external flash (perhaps held up on a synchronization cord) that had - 1 2/3 to -2 stops of flash undercompensation set so that it functioned as fill flash to open up the shadows just a bit...


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## FERAL ONE (Jan 12, 2009)

alright, i decided to go more artsy with mine because i really really stink at photoshop !!! the colors were so great on this it looked like an abstract painting to me !!!


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## rip18 (Jan 12, 2009)

WHOA!  Very cool!


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## DRB1313 (Jan 12, 2009)

FERAL ONE said:


> alright, i decided to go more artsy with mine because i really really stink at photoshop !!! the colors were so great on this it looked like an abstract painting to me !!!



I take it you found the Hippie sticks
Nice work folks!


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## FERAL ONE (Jan 12, 2009)

man publix has a whole rack of them i just ain't brave enough to go look yet !!!


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## DRB1313 (Jan 12, 2009)

Okay, I finally got around to playing with this one.
I gave it a Big Fat crop and then concentrated my efforts on the
white area around the eye, the beak and then the eyes themselves.
I also touched up the background a little.

I used a technique that I will be soon writing a tutorial on for
dodging and burning. It's way better than using the dodge or burn tool.
I basically Brightened the white.

Then, I worked on the color in the eye and saturated it a bit by
selecting it and raising the highlights in levels, then
I took and put a cooling filter over the blue from the adjustments>Photo Filter dropdown.

After that, instead of adding a catchlight, I zoomed to about 300% and used the same dodging technique to lighten the natural catchlight.
It was hard to see, but it was there.

Resized and added some selective sharpening.

Great photo to start with and thanks for letting us play around with it!!!


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## rip18 (Jan 12, 2009)

Great job!  Can't wait to read the new tutorial!


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## FERAL ONE (Jan 12, 2009)

yep,  i better just stick with photo art ..... 

great job drb !!!!


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## DRB1313 (Jan 12, 2009)

I posted the tutorial on my site. Thanks for allowing the use of your photo 11P&Y.
It fit right in with the tutorial I was working on.


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## Eddy M. (Jan 12, 2009)

Dang I may have to toss my old camera and give up photography totally you guy's are something else   WOW


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## beginnersluck (Jan 12, 2009)

Here's my try at it.  I like to make the background b/w and change the color a bit.  Best I can do for now.  I'll try to work a little more when I have more time.


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## bristol_bound (Jan 12, 2009)

What a great picture to start with! 
This thread is an outstanding idea! 
Thanks to all.


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## 11P&YBOWHUNTER (Jan 12, 2009)

Thanks everyone who has participated.  

I have a friend who is what i would call a world class photo shop artist if there ever was one.  I am going to see if she would give it a try and let me post her results.  Problem is, i do not what her to be offended because there is some stellar artists on here!!!  Maybe i could spend a few hours with one or two of you sometime just to see how you work your magic!!


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