Specific Haze Removal Remove glare on eye Color Correct Goldfinch

[teatree92]

Can anyone please help me remove some of the grain on this photo, make the colors a bit more realistic, and remove the glare on the goldfinch's eye? If you're able/ willing, will you please tell me what you did to fix this. That way I can try to learn these techniques?

Thanks in advance, I love you guys' edits/ help!

 

[thebestcpu]

Here is my try
John Wheeler

 

[teatree92]

Thank you SO MUCH!

 

[thebestcpu]

You're welcome @teatree92
John Wheeler

 

[Babine]

Reduced the colour cast somewhat with curves using the darkest portion of the wing; cloned over the eye glare; duplicate image; apply image/A and B channels in LAB mode and blended in with the original with a mask to increase saturation; selective sharpening in darken mode with a mask.

 

[teatree92]

Thank you for the explanation!

 

[chrisdesign]

Step 1
Set the white point value in your image with the curve tool.

Step 2
Use the curve tool to make the mid tones darker. This increases the colors in a natural way.


Step 3
Go to the Filter menu for reducing noise. Put the value as shown with the arrows.


This is the final result.

 

[teatree92]

Thank you!

 

[Hudson]

It appears to be very saturated, so I used a Hue/Sat mask to lower the background saturation and slightly darkened it to highlight the bird. Then I lifted the shadows. I used Colormancer to reduce the noise. Added a little sharpening and I repainted the eye with a small catch-light. I repaired a few small blown our parts of the bird with a soft paint brush on a new layer set to soft light.

Just some CC on the actual photograph, try reducing the negative space and add more positive space, to have the bird looking into the frame. A good example for this is using the Rule-of-Thirds (either in-camera while framing your subject or in PP), which would place the bird on the 1/3rd left vertical line, as you would imagine in a Noughts & Crosses grid. Maybe add a vignette to really make the bird pop. Perhaps a faster shutter speed of 1200 plus and f:5.6 would have given a it more detail. I hope this is of some help.

Edited Image:

Rule of Thirds (framing the bird) cropping to 3:4

 

[teatree92]

Thanks!

 

[chrisdesign]

@Hudson
You did a nice job on the birds eye. (I forgot this detail)
Your image and explanation of the rule of thirds is great, and also very important for a photographer.
The one thing I disagree is the desaturation of your image. Could it possibly be that you didn't calibrate your monitor properly?

 

[thebestcpu]

@Hudson

The one thing I disagree is the desaturation of your image. Could it possibly be that you didn't calibrate your monitor properly?

I noticed @Hudson that your image did not have an embedded profile. Was the image saved as sRGB or in another color space? Hard to know if I am viewing the image correctly without that embeded profile.
John Wheler

 

[Hudson]

@Hudson
You did a nice job on the birds eye. (I forgot this detail)
Your image and explanation of the rule of thirds is great, and also very important for a photographer.
The one thing I disagree is the desaturation of your image. Could it possibly be that you didn't calibrate your monitor properly?

Thanks for the reply. I use a calibrated IPS panel and the desaturation was basically an idea to make the bird stand out a bit more. I didn't desaturate the bird, only the background. It's all subjective and was only meant to provoke thought for the photographer.

 

[Hudson]

I noticed @Hudson that your image did not have an embedded profile. Was the image saved as sRGB or in another color space? Hard to know if I am viewing the image correctly without that embeded profile.
John Wheler

John, it was only as a guide for the photographer to throw the emphasis onto the bird. I use all types of colour spaces but this was saved as an exported image for the web to keep size down. It would have saved as sRGB.