[shuttertalk]

Ok, I bags first post!

I took this shot of a bird in a tree, but it looks a bit ordinary - perhaps because of the clutter, perhaps of the boring background. Do your magic, people!

[gd]

This is my attempt.
I cropped
then cloned out some clutter
applied a warm filter to it.
then adjusted the levels slightly.

dunno if I made it better but.

[EnglishBob]

I cropped into a landscape, increased blues slightly and then used USM on the luminosity channel in CMYK mode.

[shuttertalk]

Nice guys!

I couldn't resist taking a stab as well...

[guerito]

Replaced the background
Played with contrast and lighting in general

Well, actually I played quite a lot and I can't say exactly what I've done. At some point during the process I had the idea that, with the dry twigs, it would be fitting to place the bird in a scene after a fire. Everything burned and still smoking. But I would have had to do all the work again, so I left it alone.

[Petographer]

Good job Guerito. You certainly have some nice filters. Here's my stab at it.


I removed the daytime sky with the magic eraser tool, lowered the gamma and selected and pasted the image on to the moon layer. I had then taken a layer of just the bird untouched and pasted it over the original. Quick and easy. Nothing too technical here.

[guerito]

Very nicely done, Peto. I like yours more than mine, I have to admit. I don't own such a pretty moon, so I have to make do with sunsets... (sigh)

[shuttertalk]

Wow and wow, thanks guerito and Petographer! Those are way better! Awesome! I can hardly recognise them from the original image.

[Toad]

Both excellent, Colin and Guerito. Nothing I like better than creative processing.

[slejhamer]

Creative work!

In terms of composition, I'm wondering if it would be better to remove the tree on the right side. The leading lines in the image suggest to me that the bird will take flight in that direction and then BONK! right on the beak.

[smelly]

I did something like this. It's not all that flash, but here's my go.

[shuttertalk]

Much cleaner, smelly. Thanks!

[Irma]

Here is my try... I did it with PSP9

[slejhamer]

Hey that's cool. Like like pencil on tracing paper.

[Irma]

Thanks slejhamer, I really like to do this with some pictures. Here you could see another try with my neighbour's door... this one is sort of charcoal...

http://graphics.bavariasoft.com/images/a...hoto7.html

[gd]

Irma, you come up with some great approaches to post-processing.

I look at a photo and typically just try to remove imperfections and distractions (something I have a lot of in my photos)... but you, Colin and Don (others can do it, I am sure) typically come up with effects in their photos that give them a new identity.

That's a nice useful skill. I give it my highest rating.. "Kudos!"

[shuttertalk]

Great work, Irma, if I might say so myself!

[Irma]

Thanks gd and Shuttertalk...