Please Help with Buzzards & Noon Day Sun.

[Neuner]

Driving out in the country I came across buzzards eating on a dead deer in a field close to the road. It was noon and the sun was harsh but I didn't want to pass up this photo op. I have the original & what I tried to do with it. I wanted to try & use the harsh sun and get a dry-desert heat look to it but didn't pull it off. Is there anything I can do with it besides the trash can? This photo can be edited if you're interested.

Original:

Processed:

I used too much contrast & sharpness but I was trying to get the buzzards to stand out from the field.

thanks for the help,
Neuner

 

[abraxas]

You did well with the processing. You get more than the one shot?

 

[Neuner]

I did but this one is the best. I tried parking down the street and sneaking to get a close shot but the birds were spooked off so I had to wait & drive by real slow. If I stopped they flew off again. The other shots have something blocking the deers face or the birds are off in the background.

 

[Neuner]

Gave it another shot treating it as an HDR & NeatImage. Changed the crop so it wasn't so centered. Any better?

 

[Deadeye008]

Here's my go at it.

 

[RKW3]

I like your tonemapped edit Neuner, here is something I came up with..

 

[Neuner]

I like your tonemapped edit Neuner, here is something I came up with..

I like how you desaturated the ground around the deer & birds and made them stand out more. How did you do this?

 

[RKW3]

I like how you desaturated the ground around the deer & birds and made them stand out more. How did you do this?

I created an adjustment layer that converted this photo to B&W. Then I made that layer not 100 opacity (somewhere around 50%). Then I believe if you choose the color black and you use the brush tool you can brush over the areas of your photo that you want to look like they did before you added the adjustment layer.

Kind of hard to explain.. But I basically just did the same steps as I would if I were to do a selective coloring but I just didn't make that layer 100% opacity so it wouldn't be a "true" selective coloring.

 

[Neuner]

Thanks for the tip.

I cropped the photo differently and it has more of the empty feeling I was looking for. Still not great, but it is what it is. Guess I'll stop trying to make a poor picture work.

Thanks for the help & suggestions. Better luck next time!

 

[HattieShay]

i wish you could have gotten closer and from another angle with less debris and more deer.
curse the skittish buzzards.