Toucan

shorty6049 · Apr 1, 2007

I just want some comments and such on this... i thought it was a good photo, but nobody else really seems all that impressed...

firemedic0135 · Apr 1, 2007

The problem I see with it is that is overexposed on the breast and beak/bill.May want to try spot metering on the lighter areas and then exposing your shot.You may have some luck throwing a lasso around it in PP and pulling down some of the highlights.

firemedic0135 · Apr 1, 2007

Just to add a quick note I dont dislike your photo,It is quite vibrant with color, and looks better than the toucan pics I took.On the other hand it seams kind of common and doesnt really have anything that makes it stand out.

shorty6049 · Apr 2, 2007

ya, i know what you mean, thanks

LaFoto · Apr 2, 2007

If this were mine, I'd be happy about it.
My toucan pics all sport the meshed wire that was around the cage in which it was sitting

roll: ) ... so be happy.
It has wonderful colours, and I don't know if you did something extra to it to make it so shiny and soft (Mohain's-brought-to-me-via-Lostprophet's dreamification technique, maybe?) - and you got the focus absolutely right. I can see all the trees that surround him in his eyes.
Maybe, though, it is too "normal a view" of a toucan? As firemedico is suggesting?

Well, I love the greens, bird, focus and DOF here - but wonder about the overexposure and wonder if that was planned and brought about by some pp technique?

shorty6049 · Apr 2, 2007

no photoshop technique, i think this was actually directly out of the camera... whats the dreamification technique?? dont think i've heard of that one before... , and yeah, i do agree its a very normal view of a toucan (engineering definition of normal is perpendicular to, which is pretty much what my camera was to the bird..), it was sitting on a mans arm though, which is why i didnt includ any more of the bird in the photo, or why there's not much of an angle or anything

LaFoto · Apr 2, 2007

All the more reason to be happy about this since you could thus avoid the blurred out meshed wire that usually makes their cages in which I would see one!

And that "dreamification"-technique, which Mohain explained once and Lostprophet re-explained - so to me it came from Lostprophet - goes like this: you make a Duplicate Layer in Photoshop, then go to Filters -> Blur -> Gaussian Blur and apply as much as you like (LP did it at 5, I am now up to 12) - and in a third step you go to Layers -> Channel Mixer -> Screen and apply "Screen" ... to then adjust the opacity until you like it.