Noob needs editing advice

[MisplacedAngler]

Got a picture of these geese while i was trying to get some sunrise photos this morning. I've done some very basic editing, but I was wondering what some of you more experienced people would do to enhance this photo. It looks kinda drab, but the drab colors do help the geese contrast a lil' more.

 

[Samanax]

To imbed an image from Flickr. Go to the picture you want to use from Flickr and click on "All Sizes" (above your picture). Select the size you want to display and then look below the picture for the #2 box that says "Grab the photo's URL:". Highlight to select it and then right click the selection and hit Cut (or Copy). Now go back to the TPF (The Photo Forum) post you want to imbed the image in. Click on the orange and grey icon above the message box (the one that looks like a tree with a camera in the front of it). In the box that pops up, paste the URL in box (make sure you only have 1 "http://" in the URL line before you hit the Ok button). Hit the Ok button. Click on the "Preview Post" button to see if your picture is imbedded in the post.

 

[MisplacedAngler]

I knew there was a way to do that, but wasn't sure what it was. Thanks.

 

[KmH]

The geese are pretty small. To make them the main subject of the photo I'd crop it to a panoramic aspect ratio, dodge the water, burn the treeline, tweak the vibrance/saturation/clarity, a nice border/background/drop shadow:

 

[JeramyJ]

The geese are pretty small. To make them the main subject of the photo I'd crop it to a panoramic aspect ratio, dodge the water, burn the treeline, tweak the vibrance/saturation/clarity, a nice border/background/drop shadow:

Nice work there! Very big difference. How do you burn the treeline? And, what program are you using? (Not trying to threadjack but interested)

 

[KmH]

I used Adobe Camera Raw (ACR), Adobe Photoshop CS4 and Topaz Adjust.

Dodge lightens and Burn darkens. CS4 has a tool that does both.

The way the tool is used is:

• Select the Background layer and click on - Layer>New>Layer. In the dialog box that pops up change the blending mode to Soft Light, Hard Light, Vivid Light,Linear light, Pin Light, or Hard Mix. I mostly use Soft Light.
• Put a check mark in the "Fill with [yada-yada] neutraol color (50%) grey, so you'll be able to look at the thumbnail iin the Layer pallet to see where and which effect you have done.
• Select either the Dodge or the Burn tool from the Tool pallet.
• Select a soft edged brush of the size you want. (Tip: You can use the [ key to make the brush smaller or the ] key to mak it bigger.)
• Paint on the image where you want the effect.

 

[HikinMike]

The tree branches are in the way. Me personally, I would find a better place to shoot and wouldn't bother 'fixing' this image.

 

[MisplacedAngler]

The tree branches are in the way. Me personally, I would find a better place to shoot and wouldn't bother 'fixing' this image.

What I really needed was a telephoto lens but I figured I would get one of those when I actually learn how to use my camera. Without a tele lens, this was about as open as I could get.

 

[HikinMike]

It looks like a nice place to shoot though. Even though you don't own a larger lens, I bet you could capture some really nice landscape shots, if the conditions were right. Having a few ducks in the water or even in flight would just add more interest. Not sure what your lens is, but here's a recent shot similar to what I'm trying to tell you: Merced NWR at Sunset. I used my 70-200 @ 122mm.