Critique Frankenbird Little Egret in flight - An exercise in PP

P

Phal

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Name
Etienne
Edit My Images
Yes
So I got this shot:

Crappy Ropebird by Phal44, on Flickr


That's a cropped version of the original and I thought "hmmm I like the bird since it's nice and sharp and I love the reflected light under it's wing but that stupid rope is in the way!". I know stuff like that can be removed but it's a PITA to do it in Lightroom at the best of times and dealing with the wing detail is difficult.

I started off with just the spot removal tool in Lightroom and I was able to do the underwing part as the light there lends itself to blurriness and weird lighting but as soon as I got to the top wing in the sun I knew that just wouldn't work.

I don't use Photoshop much other than for the HDR wizard or Panoramic wizard and I've had a few stabs at trying stuff in the past but not much. Tonight I thought I'd have a go and this is what I've ended up with.

Frankenbird by Phal44, on Flickr


I kept the removal I'd already done on the underwing. It's not perfect but looks alright if you don't look very closely. The only method I could thing of was to copy bits of the same wing to replace the rope parts but then I decided to check my other shots. I'd gotten a few more shots on the same flyby and I found one with the wing in a similar position. It wasn't the same but was as close as I was going to get!

I selected it and pasted it before reshaping it to fit better etc. I'm sure it could be done better and feel free to post any tips or guides but I can only spend so long before I get frustrated lol.

Lastly I also cut off the feet and found some feet from another shot which were similar and got those on! That was a lot easier :) Annoyingly the top leg looks a bit askew when I check it on Flickr but in Photoshop/Lightroom they look fine. There's a line a little way up the leg but that's not where the other leg was stuck on :) Might be something to do with the fact that both legs are the same leg pasted twice lol. The shot I used was from a different angle where only one leg was really visible so I pasted it twice.

All in all It's not too bad I guess!
 
MHO is that you've done a cracking bit of editing there. Without you doing the before and after, you'd be hard pushed to know it had been "tweaked"... Great job!
 
Hmm, I don't see the point of me posting feedback/critique unless it's totally honest. So, just bear in mind please that what follows is only my personal opinion and means very little in the grand scheme of things.

Before reading about your Photoshop editing (far better than my attempts would have been!) I was struck about how peculiar and unnatural the underwing appears. I then wondered if it was perhaps just very strong water reflections which had created that effect, but surely not to that extent on plumage.

But your work in both removing the rope and substituting those massive feet which Egrets have, is excellent and seamless. Also, you have very successfully brightened up the whites without blowing them out.

They say that the camera never lies but I still feel that the underwing looks very unreal even if in fact it is real.
 
RedRobin said:
Hmm, I don't see the point of me posting feedback/critique unless it's totally honest. So, just bear in mind please that what follows is only my personal opinion and means very little in the grand scheme of things.

Before reading about your Photoshop editing (far better than my attempts would have been!) I was struck about how peculiar and unnatural the underwing appears. I then wondered if it was perhaps just very strong water reflections which had created that effect, but surely not to that extent on plumage.

But your work in both removing the rope and substituting those massive feet which Egrets have, is excellent and seamless. Also, you have very successfully brightened up the whites without blowing them out.

They say that the camera never lies but I still feel that the underwing looks very unreal even if in fact it is real.
Click to expand...

Yeah tbh if I was going for perfection then I could have spent more time with the underwing. If I look, I can still make out a rough line where the rope was that ideally there would be no discernable pattern where the rope was. The underwing is already lit quite well with the reflections and that reflection pattern makes it easier to remove the rope but there's room for improvement :)

I was just glad the other wing and the feet turned out so well that I thought I'd share :) lol

Without the before and after I don't think people would notice but I generally strive for close to perfection so there's room for improvement!
 
RedRobin said:
Hmm, I don't see the point of me posting feedback/critique unless it's totally honest. So, just bear in mind please that what follows is only my personal opinion and means very little in the grand scheme of things.

Before reading about your Photoshop editing (far better than my attempts would have been!) I was struck about how peculiar and unnatural the underwing appears. I then wondered if it was perhaps just very strong water reflections which had created that effect, but surely not to that extent on plumage.

But your work in both removing the rope and substituting those massive feet which Egrets have, is excellent and seamless. Also, you have very successfully brightened up the whites without blowing them out.

They say that the camera never lies but I still feel that the underwing looks very unreal even if in fact it is real.
Click to expand...

It may appear unatural, but if you study the image properly you will notice that the appearance on the underwing is in fact caused by a shadow from the other wing. All in all a good edit @Phal
 
u8myufo said:
It may appear unatural, but if you study the image properly you will notice that the appearance on the underwing is in fact caused by a shadow from the other wing. All in all a good edit @Phal
Click to expand...

agreed

also water reflection plus shadow on right underwing is quite attractive and cloning is well done
 
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