Longing for Freedom: The Negativity of Captivity

[The_Traveler]

Good pictures.
I suggest you tone down the bright spots and crop away some of the surrounding so that the animal gets larger in the frame.

 

[Raj_55555]

Good pictures.
I suggest you tone down the bright spots and crop away some of the surrounding so that the animal gets larger in the frame.

I really like this version, the eyes are more drawn to the fingers as well. It was not happening in the original version. Also the toned down areas on the left look a lot more in sync with the rusty cages. Thanks a lot for taking the time to edit, I really appreciate it!

 

[The_Traveler]

On a larger res image, I would have tried to take away the little portions of the mesh that obscured the eyes. (I did lighten the eyes a bit)

 

[Raj_55555]

On a larger res image, I would have tried to take away the little portions of the mesh that obscured the eyes. (I did lighten the eyes a bit)

I actually did try that initially, and failed miserably. My LR skills are okay, but I suck in photoshop. Content aware move didn't help much here, or maybe I used it wrong.

 

[The_Traveler]

Fixed eyes a bit

 

[Raj_55555]

Fixed eyes a bit

The amount of noise reduced is amazing.
I don't know how you did it, but I swear if I didn't have both the pics I wouldn't have noticed that the eyes are from another image altogether. It is from the other image, right? And if it is, how did you place it so accurately?

I have miles to go in my PP development, thank you so much.

 

[The_Traveler]

I removed the mesh and eyes from the one above and then copied and pasted eyes, individually, from another one of your pictures, adjusted slant and size, the used a medium hard eraser to clean up around the edge, adjusted brightness as much as possible and there we are.

The noise reduction was with imagenomics denoiser - not me at all. :smileys::smileys:

 

[Raj_55555]

I removed the mesh and eyes from the one above and then copied and pasted eyes, individually, from another one of your pictures, adjusted brightness as much as possible and their we are.
The noise reduction was with imagenomics denoiser - not me at all.

I didn't even think in that direction, never even considered it. Learned a lot from this single post of yours and will keep this method in mind. Thank you so much

imagenomics denoiser? Never even heard of that! Time to hit google now.

 

[The_Traveler]

80% of successful editing/post-processing is knowing what you want to do in a very general way and then finding out the specifics of how to do it. The mechanics of most editing is knowledge and only a bit of skill. (Of course, higher end stuff, like Binga63's, requires more artisitic vision, talent and skill but what I do is simple stuff once one is aware of it.)

See if you can find the 2005 edition of Masking and Compositing by Katrin Eismann or any edition of Restoration and Retouching by the same author.
(do not get later edition of Masking & Compositing, it has new co-editor and isn't as good, imo)
They are both, especially the first one, incredibly useful books to learn both the what and the how of PPing.

 

[Raj_55555]

While I found the first one, it's published in 2012.

I also found the other one, but the author seems to be "Mark Fitzgerald". I'll still look around, it's possible one of my Photpshop crazy friend may have a soft copy for this.

 

[JTPhotography]

Powerful. Thanks for shooting and sharing with us.

 

[The_Traveler]

While I found the first one, it's published in 2012.

I also found the other one, but the author seems to be "Mark Fitzgerald". I'll still look around, it's possible one of my Photpshop crazy friend may have a soft copy for this.

this is the one.
the 2012 version is not nearly as good; my guess is that's the reason the 2004 version is still high in price.

Amazon.in: Buy Photoshop Masking & Compositing (Voices) Book Online at Low Prices in India | Photoshop Masking & Compositing (Voices) Reviews & Ratings

 

[Raj_55555]

this is the one.
the 2012 version is not nearly as good; my guess is that's the reason the 2004 version is still high in price.

Amazon.in: Buy Photoshop Masking & Compositing (Voices) Book Online at Low Prices in India | Photoshop Masking & Compositing (Voices) Reviews & Ratings

Lol.. it's funny that you found the book for my country, where I couldn't. Honestly though, the price is a bit too high for me. But I'll try and seduce my friends into making a shared purchase. Thanks a lot, again!