A while back, I had been to Ranganthittu to photograph the river terns. For those who don't know where Ranganthittu is, it is a bird sanctuary comprising of a cluster of islands in Cauvery river, near Mysore. A lot of birds - openbills, painted storks, pelicans, river terns ... - come here to breed. The river terns, in particular, nest on a small rock in the middle of the river.
The lighting conditions in Ranganthittu are not exactly optimum. One can never get all the elements in the image properly exposed. When the bird is exposed properly, the rocks, covered with guano, become hopelessly over exposed. When the exposure is based on the rocks, the bird becomes underexposed. To add to the complication, the river tern is a predominantly black and white (silvery grey to be exact) bird, making the exposure even more difficult.
I decided to base the exposure on the grayish white body of the river tern, allowing the rocks to be over exposed and the black head of the river tern to be under exposed. A word of caution, make sure the photograph is taken in RAW during these circumstances. This will result in a better image after post processing.
I will be using dodge and burn tools on the image above to get a properly exposed image. Put simply, dodging increases the brightness of the pixels and burning decreases the brightness. The advantage of these tools is that they can be used only on the required areas of the image.
First, I will use the dodge tool on the underexposed head. To do this:
1. Open the image in Adobe photoshop. I am using photoshop CS5.
2. Select the dodge tool from the menu on the left hand side of the screen
3. Set the parameters of the dodge tool as desired.
I have selected the brush size as 17 px, as the head is relatively small in the image. The hardness has been set to 0 so as to give a more natural look in the final image. The range has been selected as shadows so that the tool will affect only the shadow regions of the image.
The exposure has been set 3%. Start with a small exposure and apply the dodge tool repeatedly over a certain region to increase the brightness. This will give a subtle effect and makes the dodging harder to detect.
4. While holding the left button pressed, move the mouse over the area of the image for which the dodge tool has to be applied - the head of the bird in this case.
Next, I will be applying the burn tool to the over exposed rocks. The steps are similar to that of dodge tool:
1. Select the burn tool from the menu on the left hand side of the screen
3. Set the parameters of the burn tool as desired.
I have selected the range as Highlights and exposure as 4%.
4. While holding the left button pressed, move the mouse over the area of the image for which the burn tool has to be applied - the rocks in this case.
Finally, after a bit of sharpening and saturation adjustment, the image is ready.
The lighting conditions in Ranganthittu are not exactly optimum. One can never get all the elements in the image properly exposed. When the bird is exposed properly, the rocks, covered with guano, become hopelessly over exposed. When the exposure is based on the rocks, the bird becomes underexposed. To add to the complication, the river tern is a predominantly black and white (silvery grey to be exact) bird, making the exposure even more difficult.
I decided to base the exposure on the grayish white body of the river tern, allowing the rocks to be over exposed and the black head of the river tern to be under exposed. A word of caution, make sure the photograph is taken in RAW during these circumstances. This will result in a better image after post processing.
 |
| Original image of a river tern feeding its chick. Note the under exposed head of the river tern. None of the features are visible. The over exposed rock can be distracting. |
I will be using dodge and burn tools on the image above to get a properly exposed image. Put simply, dodging increases the brightness of the pixels and burning decreases the brightness. The advantage of these tools is that they can be used only on the required areas of the image.
First, I will use the dodge tool on the underexposed head. To do this:
1. Open the image in Adobe photoshop. I am using photoshop CS5.
2. Select the dodge tool from the menu on the left hand side of the screen
 |
I have selected the brush size as 17 px, as the head is relatively small in the image. The hardness has been set to 0 so as to give a more natural look in the final image. The range has been selected as shadows so that the tool will affect only the shadow regions of the image.
The exposure has been set 3%. Start with a small exposure and apply the dodge tool repeatedly over a certain region to increase the brightness. This will give a subtle effect and makes the dodging harder to detect.
4. While holding the left button pressed, move the mouse over the area of the image for which the dodge tool has to be applied - the head of the bird in this case.
 |
| Image after dodging. The eye becomes more visible. |
Next, I will be applying the burn tool to the over exposed rocks. The steps are similar to that of dodge tool:
1. Select the burn tool from the menu on the left hand side of the screen
3. Set the parameters of the burn tool as desired.
I have selected the range as Highlights and exposure as 4%.
4. While holding the left button pressed, move the mouse over the area of the image for which the burn tool has to be applied - the rocks in this case.
 |
| The rock has become less distracting |
Finally, after a bit of sharpening and saturation adjustment, the image is ready.
Nice work here!! :)
ReplyDeleteThanks
ReplyDeleteI dn't know much about the technical stuff but its amazing !!!
ReplyDelete