Sometimes All You Can Do Is Make The Best Of It

[Cortian]

Feeders were crowded with small birds. "Great! Chance to test those exposure settings suggested by @BrentC," I thought. Got back to the doorwall with the camera. Something had spooked 'em and they had all split.

A variety of squirrels were still harvesting what the birds had dropped, though. Was moving to open the doorwall when one squirrel got up on the edge of the raised garden and posed. There was no way he was gonna hold that while I got door and screen open, then poked the camera out, so I snapped this through the less-than-sparkling-clean low-E glass. Turned out much better than I'd expected it would.

Re-framed it in post and applied a touch of unsharp mask.

As always: C&C welcome. (Especially on how I did on the re-framing.)

 

[BrentC]

For the framing, since the squirrel is looking to the left (our left), you want him on the right with a little more space in front as well.
For the edit, more sharpness and clarity, especially since you shot through glass.

Here is what I did. Obviously couldn't re-crop. I just increased sharpness and clarity. Iris enhanced the eyes. Used the adjustment brush on the background to reduce sharpness 100% and increase noise reduction 100%.

 

[Cortian]

Thanks for the example, Brent!

Unfortunately I cannot do any of those things, other than overall sharpness, I believe. I'm running Linux and, while it's great for 99-44/100% of what I (want to) do, image processing/enhancement isn't one of those. The Gimp just doesn't have the capabilities of PS and LR

As for the framing: I understand your point. Here's the unretouched original:

My thinking was what's to the squirrel's left is pretty boring. I did try it, though, and see what you mean:

I also bumped the unsharp mask a bit on this one.

 

[BrentC]

It doesn't have to be all the way right. Just right of centre to eliminate dead space. Here I changed aspect to 4:3 so I would have less dead space and placed him just right of centre.

 

[BrentC]

As for Gimp I never used before but from what I understand its similar to PS in that is uses layers. Its pretty powerful so I would imagine you could do similar adjustments but using layers. I'm sure there is a lot of tutorials online.

 

[Cortian]

It doesn't have to be all the way right.

*nod*

I was using rule-of-thirds guides.

As for Gimp I never used before but from what I understand its similar to PS in that is uses layers. Its pretty powerful so I would imagine you could do similar adjustments but using layers.

It does, it is and that's quite possible.

I'm sure there is a lot of tutorials online.

Tons of 'em. It's just a matter of finding the Right Ones

Thanks for your time, Brent.

 

[Dean_Gretsch]

Poor little fellow reminds me of a woman hiding her cold bits. Great catch and great tips @BrentC.