Brown Creeper

[micpic]

I shot this image last Friday but wanted to wait to post it when I got Photoshop 7. I probably could have done alot more with it in PS but I thought I'd do a little at a time. If anyone would like to play with it and show me how much better I could have made it, feel free to do it.

MicPic

[MN Shutterbug]

Them darned creepers sure blend into the tree trunks. Here is my version. I'm pretty sure there will be better ones coming. I cropped it, opened the shadows a tad, increased the overall saturation just a bit and performed USM at 20,10 and 0 - twice.

[Dbl]

Hey micpic,

I will take a stab at it. I did some fairly basic corrections here. This was low-res so I was a bit limited to what works. I first used the Shadows/Highlights adjustment layer in CS4, a HUGE improvement over CS2. Then I used selective color to adjust the whites, neutrals and blacks. I used a combination of the patch tool, rubber stamp and rectangular marquee tool to quickly clone out the distracting branch. Last was a luminosity sharpen. Maybe 2 minutes most in CS4, just quick and dirty no isolating subjects. I usually also give just a small Hue/Saturation boost but forgot this time. Would also maybe benefit from a vertical crop which I see X did in his copy.

Before;

After;

[micpic]

Thanks Mike and Dan. The image was fairly rough to start with. Those Creepers are busy birds and don't stay in position very long. I like how much better it looks getting rid of the blurry branch to the side and I'll have to figure out what USM 20,10, 0 is because I'm just new to this. I'm glad there is still time to work with this before spring comes. Should have time to work with it tomorrow cause it's a repeat of today with temps below zero and I don't like bothering my yard birds in those kind of conditions.

Mic

[Jim Almquist]

micpic USM means unsharp mask. If you are in Photoshop and want to make your image sharper you would go to Filter then Sharpen and then Unsharp Mask and when it opens it will want you to fill in the Amounts,Radius and Threshhold so the Amount is 20 and the Radius is 10 with a Threshold is 0.

[Steve Foss]

Good shot, mic! Learning is fun.

[MN Shutterbug]

micpic USM means unsharp mask. If you are in Photoshop and want to make your image sharper you would go to Filter then Sharpen and then Unsharp Mask and when it opens it will want you to fill in the Amounts,Radius and Threshhold so the Amount is 20 and the Radius is 10 with a Threshold is 0.

Sometimes it will take at least a couple applications. You just have to make sure that "halos" don't form from over sharpening. Also, graininess can show up in the shadows, if you're not careful.

[Dbl]

Originally Posted By: jimalm

micpic USM means unsharp mask. If you are in Photoshop and want to make your image sharper you would go to Filter then Sharpen and then Unsharp Mask and when it opens it will want you to fill in the Amounts,Radius and Threshhold so the Amount is 20 and the Radius is 10 with a Threshold is 0.

Sometimes it will take at least a couple applications. You just have to make sure that "halos" don't form from over sharpening. Also, graininess can show up in the shadows, if you're not careful.

That is one good reason to sharpen using the Luminosity mode. What it does is avoid any color shifts or color fringes that sharpening causes. It is not perfect but you reduce halos by a significant amount. You can apply it in a layer, like any other sharpening technique and adjust the opacity of that layer to get the desired effect. You can also use it as a mask and just paint the sharpening in where you want it. Just another technique to throw in your bag of tricks.

[Jim Almquist]

Dan that is something that I have been checking out ( reading my CS2 book by Scott Kelby )using the Lab Color Sharpening method were you sharpen what sounds like the black and white layer. I am beginning to feel that my post processing needs to get better if my pictures are going better or sharper. More questions to come

[Dbl]

Hey Jim, the Kelby book is the best IMHO. You can do a conversion to Lab color but you don't want to do it multiple times. Not good for your files. An even easier way is to not convert to lab color. Kelby uses this same technique.

Apply USM say 125, 1, 3 you can play around with these numbers but this is Kelby's starting point and I like them as settings.

Now go under Edit > and choose Fade Unsharp Mask. Change the Fade dialog from Normal to Luminosity. It is that simple!

Now you can use the opacity slider to control your sharpening. You can even apply it again and fade to get say 1 1/2 sharpenings. Easy as pie, and you greatly reduce halo issues!

You can take it to the next step and apply a mask and paint the sharpening in as well. Here is the cool part, I just recorded those simple steps to an action so I all I have to do is run my action called "Luminosity Sharpen". There are complete books on just sharpening, I've looked at them in the store, dry reading for sure! But this is one of the more popular techniques used and I happen to think it produces really nice results.

[JayinMN]

The brown creeper is one bird I have always wanted to see and some how I keep missing them. Johnny even showed me a spot that he got pictures of one at Carey lake but still no luck. One of these days I will get lucky. Thanks for sharing the shots.

[Steve Foss]

They're one of the quietest, best camouflaged birds in the woods, Jay. Very cool birds.

[John Mikes]

Here's my take:

[jonny_redhorse]

Jay,Hopefully they'll be back near Carey Lake again this year.....I saw them twice in the same area last summer....

[MN Shutterbug]

Occasionally, I will spot a creeper on my tree. However, it blends in so well I haven't considered trying a shot. I'm going to have to attempt to try and get a side shot, someday.