Bird was covering all her bases: I like this bird nest nestled up to a Buddha statue, sitting in a little wooden alcove with a cross on top, but I have never been able to make this...

Heirloom Tomato Loc: Oregon

I like this bird nest nestled up to a Buddha statue, sitting in a little wooden alcove with a cross on top, but I have never been able to make this look anything but blah. It eludes me. I would like to keep the cross as part of the image. Have tried to re-shoot it a few times but without better results.

If anyone has ideas on how to make a better image out of this, please feel free to make suggestions and/or edits. Maybe I'm missing something, but maybe it can't be saved.

Bird's Nest with Cross and Buddha

lighthouse Loc: No Fixed Abode

The problem is two things that I can see.
1) No bird or activity at the nest.
2) The background light is more interesting than the subject light.

Reshoot.

Heirloom Tomato Loc: Oregon

lighthouse wrote:

The problem is two things that I can see.
1) No bird or activity at the nest.
2) The background light is more interesting than the subject light.

Reshoot.

Good points, thank you Lighthouse. I may have to take a reflector down there. Unfortunately, the nest is abandoned. No one is ever home. Maybe I should stick a fake bird in. Just kidding. :-P

lighthouse Loc: No Fixed Abode

Maybe you catch a little bird and staple its feet to the bottom of the nest?
And yes, of course I hope you know I am joking.

Heirloom Tomato Loc: Oregon

lighthouse wrote:

Maybe you catch a little bird and staple its feet to the bottom of the nest?
And yes, of course I hope you know I am joking.

Ha ha, it's a tempting idea but can't do that. If my Photoshop skills improve I could try pasting one in electronically.... but my skills aren't up to doing that convincingly at this point. Thanks for your comments!

Bob Yankle Loc: Burlington, NC

lighthouse wrote:

Maybe you catch a little bird and staple its feet to the bottom of the nest?
And yes, of course I hope you know I am joking.

Went on a photographer's "game safari" in Kenya and the tracker said he would take us to see some hippopotamuses. He guided us to a watering hole which was nothing more than a very large pond, probably the size of a football field. Sure enough, we were able to see 3 or 4 of these large animals, "blowing" water out of their nostrils as the came up for air after being submerged for a fairly long time. We joked among ourselves that they probably had those puppies chained to the bottom (since a hippo will normally wander inland after dusk). So the idea is not unheard of.

Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

Aside from lighting issues, are you able to blur the background trees? Another issue is how much there is basically all the same color :)

Bob Yankle Loc: Burlington, NC

To me, the focal point of this photo was the area between the cross at the top of the bird house, the bird nest, and the Buddha figure, so I wanted to highlight, up the contrast and sharpen those area, then darken and desaturate everything else. I also used a targeted light sources to draw your eye to the center of the photo. The black matte just made the rest of the picture pop.

Variation of Bird Covering her Bases

Heirloom Tomato Loc: Oregon

Bob Yankle wrote:

To me, the focal point of this photo was the area between the cross at the top of the bird house, the bird nest, and the Buddha figure, so I wanted to highlight, up the contrast and sharpen those area, then darken and desaturate everything else. I also used a targeted light sources to draw your eye to the center of the photo. The black matte just made the rest of the picture pop.

Thank you, Bob. I really like what you did, and it looks so nice in the frame too. This is so much better than the original. Your Photoshop skills are very good! I have a way to go to learn to do these things.

Heirloom Tomato Loc: Oregon

Linda From Maine wrote:

Aside from lighting issues, are you able to blur the background trees? Another issue is how much there is basically all the same color :)

I just saw Bob Yankle's version and I think he addressed these issues about as well as could be done! I like it a lot.

Chuck_893 Loc: Lincoln, Nebraska, USA

Heirloom Tomato wrote:

I just saw Bob Yankle's version and I think he addressed these issues about as well as could be done! I like it a lot.

I like Bob's version also. If I had made the picture I might also very subtly highlight the cross as well, juuuust a tad so you don't miss it, but what I think the picture really needs is a clutch of bright blue robin's eggs in the nest. I don't think it needs a bird so much as it needs eggs, and it looks to me like a robin's nest. I'm not sure I'd have the skill, but I know somebody does. :D

dave sproul Loc: Tucson AZ

Chuck_893 wrote:

I like Bob's version also. If I had made the picture I might also very subtly highlight the cross as well, juuuust a tad so you don't miss it, but what I think the picture really needs is a clutch of bright blue robin's eggs in the nest. I don't think it needs a bird so much as it needs eggs, and it looks to me like a robin's nest. I'm not sure I'd have the skill, but I know somebody does. :D

I vote to try and high light the cross a little

oldtool2 Loc: South Jersey

Chuck_893 wrote:

I like Bob's version also. If I had made the picture I might also very subtly highlight the cross as well, juuuust a tad so you don't miss it, but what I think the picture really needs is a clutch of bright blue robin's eggs in the nest. I don't think it needs a bird so much as it needs eggs, and it looks to me like a robin's nest. I'm not sure I'd have the skill, but I know somebody does. :D

Chuck, I agree. There is just not enough contrast to draw your eyes to the nest. I have been playing with it and can't seem to get it right.

The other problem is the cross. You can't have two central points to draw your eyes to, need to use one or the other. The photo above by Bob Yankle is about as good as it is going to get I think.

Jim D

Bob Yankle Loc: Burlington, NC

dave sproul wrote:

I vote to try and high light the cross a little

I took you at your word. I will say, however, that in the context of keeping a photo "somewhat" natural, I usually keep such changes subtle - they need to blend into the background. In this instance, I used a couple of control points to desaturate and darken 2 spots of green under the left arm of the cross, then highlighted the cross, made it just a shade brighter and brought up its structure. Moving on, I went to the upper left side of the tree and brightened it ever so slightly so as to blend in with the rest of the light. I then went inside the bird house to darken the wood on the back of the structure which had the added effect of drawing attention to the figures at the bottom.

Now, about the bird's nest ..... without putting a spotlight on that little structure, I think it's best left as it is. In my original submission, I had already brightened it and increased it's structure so that it's relatively sharp in comparison with it's immediate surroundings.

Variation 2 on Bird covering bases

Nightski

Bob Yankle wrote:

I took you at your word. I will say, however, that in the context of keeping a photo "somewhat" natural, I usually keep such changes subtle - they need to blend into the background.

Now, about the bird's nest ..... without putting a spotlight on that little structure, I think it's best left as it is. In my original submission, I had already brightened it and increased it's structure so that it's relatively sharp in comparison with it's immediate surroundings.

Bob, the editing job on this photo is superb. It's not over done. The color and texture you brought out with the subtle changes you made gives us a prime example of a good image that simply needed a little work. Most of the time, when PP is done in this section, I think that the photo could look better if taken again with the proper settings or I think that the photo was poorly framed and no amount of PP will help it. Here is an instance where PP is definitely working. Thank you.