Heron editing suggestions welcome

[pontiac1940]

Photographed a great blue heron yesterday. Lighting difficult but wild GB herons here are difficult to get close ... unlike in parks. So you take photos no matter the conditions.

The heron sat in the shade with the bright, partly overcast sky behind it. A difficult photography challenge at best. The bird was under exposed mainly on purpose so the background was not totally blown out. 

Suggestions welcome. I could possibly upload the raw file if you would like to have a go. However, I am tied up all day so that won't happen until late tonight or tomorrow. 

Thank you! 

Clive 

"Final" effort


ACR edits. Did some more tweaking in PSE 2023



Screenshot of the raw image pre editing 

[srmoment]

Clive, awesome job considering the conditions.
What about doing black and white with the background being white and the heron/branch in b/w tones? or, vice versa?

[hmca]

I agree with Pat and like her suggestion.....

Would also be interested in trying to work with the RAW file.

[Peterj]

Possibly better results can be obtained using the raw file.

[pontiac1940]

Thanks all. 
Here is a link to the unedited raw file saved as a PNG. Hope this works. 
Will try B&W later. 
Thank you, 
Clive

[hmca]

Just downloaded your file, Clive. It's a doozy!

[hmca]

Had wanted to see what DXO Pure Raw could do with your file, Clive. I mistakenly thought you added a dng. file. It can't open a png. file.

[pontiac1940]

Aug 13, 2024 1:04:02 GMT hmca said:

I mistakenly thought you added a dng. file. It can't open a png. file.

I'll fix that. Ooops.
.....

Here is a tif file. 98 Mb 
 

[fotofrank]

Thanks for sharing to edit.

[Peterj]

From the png using On1 photoraw 2024.5

[hmca]

Gave this a try using PSCC as Pure RAW will only accept RAW files.

I used a modern color profile, added a sky, cloned some distractions, flipped as saw what Frank and Pete had done, and finished with NIK CE 6.  Looking at my edit I think I should have selected the bird and used a levels adj. to make him stand out more.  After all this, I have to add that I think you should be pretty pleased with your initial edit, Clive!

[pontiac1940]

Aug 13, 2024 15:24:42 GMT hmca said:

Gave this a try using PSCC as Pure RAW will only accept RAW files.

Thank you all. Much appreciated. I will reply more this evening. 

Helen. Here is a link to the unedited raw file (compressed raw) from my Sony A7IV. The extension is ARW. 

Clive

[hmca]

That's OK, Clive. I think I've seen enough of that great blue heron! I did try to lighten up the bird in my edit above.

[Peterj]

From raw

[pontiac1940]

Wow! Thank you all for your input. I like what you all did with the backgrounds especially softening the background. 

I like that you flipped the heron. (Helen, you say you struggle with composition. You know why we tend to prefer the right-looking version? Becuase we read left to right. It is more "natural" for our eyes.) 

It is interesting to see how other look at a challenge. 

For now, I converted to B&W as per Pat's (srmoment ) suggestion and also blurred the background a bit. 

I'll leave it for now as I am (and have been) super busy taking no end of photos which I will share later today ... or soon. 

Thank you all. 
  


I did the edges of the heron too hastily and they are sloppy. Ooops/