Toucan photo

[Erik K.]

I took this picture of a Keel-billed toucan in northern Costa Rica. Although I like the posture of the bird and the beautiful branch on which it is sitting, I'm not happy with the leaf in front of the bill (perhaps that can be fixed using the repair tool) and the somewhat distractive background, in particular the greyish streaks on the right-hand side of the image. I tried to fix that by lowering the contrast of the background, but perhaps there are better techniques to do this?

Any ideas?

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[gaknott]

I was having trouble putting it into words, so I saved your image and played with it some in LR/PS. In LR, I just hit the Auto button on the Light adjustments, then went down to Details and used the Clarity and Dehaze sliders. This darkened the background some and caused the bird to pop a little more. I then went to PS and worked the Shadows/Highlights slider some, as well as the Gamma Correction and Offset sliders under the Exposure selection. I am happy to save it and post here as a reply, but not without your consent. Maybe you can try those suggestions with your editing software and see where it goes.

 

[gaknott]

I was having trouble putting it into words, so I saved your image and played with it some in LR/PS. In LR, I just hit the Auto button on the Light adjustments, then went down to Details and used the Clarity and Dehaze sliders. This darkened the background some and caused the bird to pop a little more. I then went to PS and worked the Shadows/Highlights slider some, as well as the Gamma Correction and Offset sliders under the Exposure selection. I am happy to save it and post here as a reply, but not without your consent. Maybe you can try those suggestions with your editing software and see where it goes.

It appears we may be in different parts of the world, so I am posting my edits just to let you see what I am talking about as it may delay it by a day if you do want to see them.

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[Erik K.]

Thank you for these suggestions, yes I'd be interested to see the results of your edits! I don't use Photoshop but in Capture One I managed to isolate the affected area in the background using a luminosity mask, and then decreased clarity and the midtones and changed the white balance. This worked pretty well, and although still not perfect it has improved a lot.

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[Erik K.]

It appears we may be in different parts of the world, so I am posting my edits just to let you see what I am talking about as it may delay it by a day if you do want to see them.
View attachment 6671

Yes I'm in the Netherlands so it's seven hours later here. I had not seen your edits yet when posting my adjusted image. Thanks for this!

 

[DRwyoming]

Thank you for these suggestions, yes I'd be interested to see the results of your edits! I don't use Photoshop but in Capture One I managed to isolate the affected area in the background using a luminosity mask, and then decreased clarity and the midtones and changed the white balance. This worked pretty well, and although still not perfect it has improved a lot.

The edit looks good.

FWIW, I'd probably start with the simplest edit and crop the image into a 4x5 aspect ratio to lose some of the right hand side and to move the bird a bit further from center. That does a few things: moves the bird further from center, removes some of the background issues and removes some of the empty space to the right of the bird. I'd also try a gentle vignette that will also tune down some of the brighter background elements but also tends to help contain the viewer's eye making it harder to wander out of the frame.

IOW, maybe something like this:

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[gordon_g]

Super!! love it!

 

[Yezdi]

Dave's edit is superb...Love it

 

[Erik K.]

The edit looks good.

FWIW, I'd probably start with the simplest edit and crop the image into a 4x5 aspect ratio to lose some of the right hand side and to move the bird a bit further from center. That does a few things: moves the bird further from center, removes some of the background issues and removes some of the empty space to the right of the bird. I'd also try a gentle vignette that will also tune down some of the brighter background elements but also tends to help contain the viewer's eye making it harder to wander out of the frame.

IOW, maybe something like this:
View attachment 7033

Excellent! Looks great, thanks for these suggestions!

 

[Viathelens]

I like the DRwyoming suggestions but I do think the beak area needs to be cleaned up. I use PS for this, the spotting and clone tools in general. LrC will not do this type of thing well at all. I assume Capture One also has these type of tools.

 

[bajadreamer]

I like the DRwyoming suggestions but I do think the beak area needs to be cleaned up. I use PS for this, the spotting and clone tools in general. LrC will not do this type of thing well at all. I assume Capture One also has these type of tools.

I agree with you. The leaves that intersect with the beak are distracting and could be easily removed. With this species it is really difficult to tone down the beak. I have blown out the beak many times. Have to really underexpose everything else to get even close. This looks like it was taken in bright overcast conditions, but even then tough to get great exposure.
All things considered though, Eric, you got a nice shot of an absolute iconic bird.

 

[Erik K.]

Thanks! I'm still trying to remove the leaves, the parts in front of the beak and the background are relatively easy, but where the dry leaf intersects the two green leaves is more difficult. In Capture One this didn't work very well so now I'm trying in Affinity Photo.

 

[bajadreamer]

Thanks! I'm still trying to remove the leaves, the parts in front of the beak and the background are relatively easy, but where the dry leaf intersects the two green leaves is more difficult. In Capture One this didn't work very well so now I'm trying in Affinity Photo.

I do not use either of those programs. In Photoshop, I would remove both the reddish stem and the green leaf that intersect the beak but I would also "trim back" the 2 green leaves you are referring to below the beak. Make them shorter and that eliminates the problem you are referring to.