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| Actual Image
The Gregarious Toad (12)
Dillinger
![Silver Star Critiquer/Silver Note Writer [C: 24 W: 9 N: 31]](http://i1.treknature.com/misc/s-n-s.gif) (121) | Grand Rapids, Michigan, is a good-sized city, but there are plenty of natural spaces to be found within the city limits. Behind my mother's house, for example, is a wooded ravine that is home to deer, wild turkeys, and smaller creatures, including this little fella (or lass?), a gregarious toad who seemed entirely comfortable posing for photos.
This appears to be a Bufo americanus (American toad), although I am no expert, and would appreciate any helpful insights form other TN'ers. It was about 2.5 to 3 inches from snout to rump.
UPDATE: Thank you, jpdenk, for raising the possibility that this might be a Bufo fowleri (Fowler's toad). I will review my other photos of this to see if I can determine which it is. |
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| Altered Image #2
Dillinger
(121)
Crop+Curves
Edited by:Dillinger
(121) |
In a follow-up to Peter's helpful suggestions and workshop, I wanted to rework this photo to bring more contrast between the toad and the background.
My first step was to crop off the leaf at the left side of the picture, which now that I notice it in the original photo is rather annoying and distracts from the main subject.
Then I used Photoshop CS2's lasso and oval selection tools to select the toad and the foreground elements (the stick and leaves on which the toad is leaning); then inverted the selection, gave it plenty of feathering, and then adjusted curves to darken the midtones of the background elements.
I then selected the area around the toad's head (using oval select tool), again with liberal feathering to allow for a gradiated adjustment, and then adjusted curves again to increase the highlights -- I did this about midway between the midtones and highlights, leaving the brightest highlights untouched so as to avoid overexposure on the toad's body. |
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| Altered Image #1
Dillinger
(121)
contrast reduced on BG
Edited by:peter_stoeckl
![Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 1538 W: 269 N: 3370]](http://i1.treknature.com/misc/g-g-g.gif) (9375) |
Trying to add a bit more attention to the toad by reducing the hard contrast of BG.
1) Selecting color from somewhere in the midrange of BG - here it happened to be:
(HSB) Hue 35°, Saturation 60%, Brightness 59%
(RGB) Red 150, Green 113, Blue 60
2) applying that color by transparent spraypaint tool (coverage 5% to 8%, r = 65) on darkest parts of BG, and also on some of the brightest parts - in order to reduce the dominance of the BG.
3) Lighting up the deep shadow under the toad's fingers the same way - in order to get out some more details there.
4) Saturation of green reduced by -40% (in order to reduce the dominance of those leaves in the BG as well - if intended).
Hope you enjoy. |
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