Improving or changing background on this image

[Jill Morgan]

I took this image of a Grackle running across my driveway.  I love the shot as both legs are in the air.  But the background is just crap, especially that dark band of shade. I'm pretty good with PS, but am undecided on whether to replace the whole background or just try to do something with that band of shadow.  I would like to keep the bird's shadow. I can easily get rid of the stick that blocks the bird's shadow, but am I better off simply replacing the whole thing with grass or something, or trying to lighten the shadow from the tree.  It is a higher ISO image,  I would like a lighter contrast behind the black bird. Any ideas on how to lighten that shadow alone?

 

 

 

Jill

[Michael Ventura]

Hi Jill,

 

You didn't say but I am assuming you have brought down the highlights, in a RAW converter, as much as possible.  I personally would not replace the background, but that's just me.  It is a nice shot of a grackle so worth working on.

[K J Bennett]

 

 

Hope you don't mind ....

 

I think it's the highlights that need toning down. I spent 5 mins playing - from PS I opened it in the RAW filter - reduced contrast, lightened shadows, played with curves and added a vignette. I de-saturated cyan in PS. Not my best effort, but only 5 mins. The highlights in my edit are a bit grey and would need more work, but it's worth persisting, as the image is really a good and well timed capture.

 

All the best

 

Kevin

Edited May 14, 2021 by K J Bennett
Typo

[Martin L]

How about going the other way and rather than raise the exposure of the shadow of the tree (possible noise issues),  drop the exposure of the bright grassy area to match the shadow of the tree and as Kevin said desaturate it to reduce the green of the grass to try and really bland out the background. 

I think it is the bright background that is a bit distracting rather than the shadow.

Hopefully it would look like bird and the foreground were illuminated by a shaft of light in front of a darker background. I think the bird is bright enough to carry it off and would make the yellow eye really stand out

Have fun

 

 

Edited May 14, 2021 by Martin L
Kevin beat me to it on the green!!!

[Jill Morgan]

1 hour ago, Michael Ventura said:

Hi Jill,

 

You didn't say but I am assuming you have brought down the highlights, in a RAW converter, as much as possible.  I personally would not replace the background, but that's just me.  It is a nice shot of a grackle so worth working on.

 

I have brought down the highlights.  One of those lucky shots when you take a whole pile of the bird running and hit on one interesting shot.  Now that I have taken a lot of bird pics, trying just to upload interesting points of view of the birds instead of the standard bird on a branch (of which I have enough now). It's just such a boring background and that shade takes away from the bird.  I may put the bird on it's own layer and work on the big shadow to bring it up a bit then merge them back together.

 

Jill

[Jill Morgan]

1 hour ago, K J Bennett said:

 

 

Hope you don't mind ....

 

I think it's the highlights that need toning down. I spent 5 mins playing - from PS I opened it in the RAW filter - reduced contrast, lightened shadows, played with curves and added a vignette. I de-saturated cyan in PS. Not my best effort, but only 5 mins. The highlights in my edit are a bit grey and would need more work, but it's worth persisting, as the image is really a good and well timed capture.

 

All the best

 

Kevin

 

I can't see your image Kevin. I don't due vignettes, too instragrammy for me. 

 

Jill

[MizBrown]

1 hour ago, Jill Morgan said:

I can't see your image Kevin.

 

It's got restricted permissions, so I couldn't see it either.

[K J Bennett]

 

On 15/05/2021 at 00:11, Jill Morgan said:

I can't see your image Kevin

 

 

http://kjbennett.co.uk/IMG_2740-1-running-grackle-EDIT-scaled.jpg

 

You may be able to see the image on this link. If not, oh well!

[Jill Morgan]

1 minute ago, K J Bennett said:

 

 

 

http://kjbennett.co.uk/IMG_2740-1-running-grackle-EDIT-scaled.jpg

 

You may be able to see the image on this link. If not, oh well!

 

Too much noise and the grass in the background is very distracting.  I haven't uploaded this image yet as I still haven't decided what to do with it.

 

Jill

[Normspics]

I know this is wacky but whatever you decide to do, do another version with it on a white background I.e. cut out. Photoshop subject selection tool works amazingly well. I could see the image on white being used in a text book.