Does it happen to eveyone?

[u8myufo]

I just feel that at the moment I am stuck in a bit of a rutt as far as my editing goes. I mostly do bird photography, I do not need to mention those that produce stunning work and I realise they have been doing it for a long time. I must admit my results from when I first began have improved a lot, but thats it at the moment. I dont feel I should be bombarding people with the "Oh how did you get it looking like that" every five minutes either. Doing a training coarse is out of the question, so I am just looking for some links to usefull tips and tricks I suppose

 

[arclight]

Been a lot of views, but no replies to your post, mate.

Think your question may be a tad vague. Not quite sure what you think your problem is.
Editing?
Camera technique?
Fieldcraft etc.

 

[jgs001]

I feel that way a lot... But just carry on anyway, and keep practising. I guess the best thing to do, if you have an example or two that show what the problem is, post them up and ask for specific suggestions on how to improve them...

 

[u8myufo]

Been a lot of views, but no replies to your post, mate.

Think your question may be a tad vague. Not quite sure what you think your problem is.
Editing?
Camera technique?
Fieldcraft etc.

Cheers archlight, here are a couple of samples. It seems that the overall effect I seem to end up with is a fairly flat image if you know what I mean. I just think the subject needs to stand out a tad more, but not sure what if anything I need to apply. Not sure if this is down to my editing or photography. I am self taught as far as editing is concerned but I do have a basic understanding of what does what in CS, but often wonder is there any particular order you apply those adjustments. Are there certain adjustments other than sharpening you need to do lastly before a crop and sharpen? when editing your raw image. All I really do is make adjustments untill I think its the best I can get it. Maybe its just the soft looking feathers of the birds I normaly shoot that cause this, maybe I am being paranoid but when I see those WOW! jumping out the picture bird shots I wonder Hope this is not too vague.

 

[jpwone]

Below is a quick edit (about 2 minutes) using a technique that I use often where there is a danger of blowing highlights.

Open in Photoshop
Duplicate the base layer
Duplicate the base layer again
Set first copy layer blend mode to 'screen'
Set second copy layer blend mode to 'overlay'
Adjust the fill and the master opacity level of the copy layers to taste
Note: adjust both fill and master opacity for each layer but leave the base layer untouched.
Fine tune the adjustments on the fill and opacity on the layers.
Flatten image
Sharpen

Literally takes me longer to type it than it does to do it.

John

 

[strax]

Thats a great, quick tip for this image. I would also mask out the background as the muted colours of the original would make the bird stand out more. Plus it would hide the slight noise introduced in the background too.

 

[u8myufo]

Below is a quick edit (about 2 minutes) using a technique that I use often where there is a danger of blowing highlights.

Open in Photoshop
Duplicate the base layer
Duplicate the base layer again
Set first copy layer blend mode to 'screen'
Set second copy layer blend mode to 'overlay'
Adjust the fill and the master opacity level of the copy layers to taste
Note: adjust both fill and master opacity for each layer but leave the base layer untouched.
Fine tune the adjustments on the fill and opacity on the layers.
Flatten image
Sharpen

Literally takes me longer to type it than it does to do it.

John

Nice Now that is much better, thanks for that