Photo-Editing Challenge: Feathers

Feathers is the theme offered by Sonel’s Photo-Editing Challenge.  This week I am working on a series of images inspired by Photogravure.  I’ve written about how to create this effect here, using a winter scene and a journal page, and here using a photo of a tree.

This time around I used a shot I captured outside my office after a recent snow.  Here is the original photo:

ISO 640 50mm 0ev f/9 1/250

If you are thinking that you have seen this photo before on this blog, you are right.  I wrote about another edited version of it here.  This time around, here is my final photo:

ISO 640 50mm 0ev f/9 1/250

If you have read my other posts you know the basics of how I approached the editing of this photo.  So, like the others it has a blur filter layer, a gradient map layer, and a texture layer.  What I added to this particular one was a final levels layer.  On that layer I brightened the photo and then added a mask to the layer.  Then I inverted the mask, so that the lighten version was not showing.  Then I took a brush, that was soft and had a jitter to it, and I brushed across the mask.  The effect this had was to add bits of light in a organic manner.  So, this ended up being a four layer file in Photoshop.

What do you think of the final version? Feel free to leave a comment below. A version of this photo is available for sale on Picfair.

Cheers!

A parrot I know

One of these days this parrot is going to squawk, “get the picture right already!”:

ISO 160 f/1.8 1/15 50mm

So, what I have right here is the lens.  I was using a 50mm, and given that the bird is close and has so many lovely colored feathers, I am using that lens to capture those details.

Here is what went wrong.  I was taking a picture of something else with a lot less light, just a minute before, and I forgot to change the f-stop before taking the picture.  The light in this place is crazy, but for this shot, there is no way a 1.8 is necessary or even a good thing.  So, I am letting in light I don’t need and losing depth of field which I do need.

Also, my white balance was set to florescent, but I think I will try tungsten next time, just to see if I prefer it.  It is a bit odd, because usually in this room, florescent works best.  For this parrot, I have tweaked the settings in the post editing process.

So, because I was surprised by this bird, I also didn’t think enough about framing the shot, hence the huge blown out white behind its head, which in some cases might work, but not in this one.

In writing this all out, I am hoping to take the photo differently when I get the chance.  Anything else I should consider? Thanks for reading!

Cheers!