Post-Processing My Way

My Way to Edit Photos

Everybody has their own way of doing the big and little tasks of making a photograph. A friend posted a nice photo of a bird, but the background seemed to me to intrude. I asked myself, “how would I have done this?” So, off to my archive for a similar photo. I found one from way back in 2015. A mockingbird, sitting on a high branch.

I do remember this photo. I took it quickly and got out from under that tree. I learned long ago not to dally below birds. The photo is rather bland, the bird does not stand out from the background, it is “too green”, and there is an out-of-focus branch over the tail of the mockingbird.

How would I make this better?

I dragged the thumbnail over to PaintShop Pro 2023 and dropped it. PSP is my prime editing tool.

This was an old JPG, not the original RAW file, so my normal first step of converting the image was not necessary. I made a duplicate in the layers pane. I used the clone brush to (mostly) paint out the blurry branch at the tail. Then I made another duplicate and used Topaz Mask AI (launched from the Effects menu) and selected the bird and the branch it is sitting on.

Now I had two images that I could modify separately – the bird by itself and the whole photo.

There are two approaches that I like to use for modifying the background: Make another duplicate and use the Screen mode (orange arrow) to combine the top layer with the next one. This produces a much brightened image without “over-exposing” the highlights. The percentage slider (yellow arrow) is used to select how much of that effect to use. It shows up instantly in the main window.

If I want to go darker, I use the Multiply mode.

My other approach is to use Enhance Photo – Smart Photo Fix.

This quick adjust tool has the usual sliders for Exposure and the other often used parameters, including color temperature which is illustrated here. I clicked on the white tail and the image was changed to make the tail into a neutral tone.

I used this tool on both the selected bird and the background to adjust the photo as I liked it.

One other tool I like is Effects – Photo Effects – Vignette. This is very flexible. The effect edge can be defined from rectangle, ellipse, or manual shape, it can be moved around and the amount, feathering, and even “glow” can be selected with sliders.

A vignette that darkens the edges of the image will lead the viewers’ attention to the subject. Too much darkening and it will look artificial and obviously modified. Making the outside lighter is rarely effective in photos. It works well for more artistic manipulations, and I use that frequently in my Cafe art.

Afte some additional “post-post-processing” I came up with this:

.:. © 2024 Ludwig Keck