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![Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 5730 W: 606 N: 3476]](http://i1.treknature.com/misc/g-g-g.gif) (9313) | Squacco heron - Ardeola ralloides
I shot this photo on my very 1st outing to the Thulasihleka Bird Sanctuary outside Richards Bay, on 24 December 2005. I only had my Canon for 3 days and boy was I green and clumsy. I never posted any photos from that time period as I couldn't get the photos to 'look' right. Basically I wrote off all the material from those first couple of weeks, but this afternoon I realised how wrong I was.
Sometimes one see or read something, but the lights just do not come on (yet). That was the case when Gert Ellstrom (ellis49) did a workshop on my 'Juvenile Mute Swan'. He explained the process he used to rectify the colours and to reduce the noise. Well Gert, I never even said thanks to you, because I did not realise what important and useful information you actually shared with me.
Last night I was looking at this workshop and I couldn't understand what Gert meant when he said he adjusted the black and white points in 'Levels'. I just could not see any buttons there that said anything about 'black & white' points. Gert also mentioned that he used NeatImage in Photoshop CS2 to remove the BG noise by selecting it with the 'Magic Wand Tool'. Now at least this made some sense, but I was under the impression that I did not have a version of NeatImage that would work with my Photoshop Elements 2.
However, tonight I realise anew how things sometimes work for us without us knowing the significance or the benefits of such workings, at the time. A week ago I asked Anna-Lu (hummingbird24) about a workshop where she used NeatImage. She pointed me to Mogens Jorgensen's (mogens-j) intro page where I found the URL to the site that offered a freeware version of NeatImage. I downloaded and installed the program, but I have not used it since.
So, this afternoon, as I booted my PC, Gert's words suddenly came to me. I opened Photoshop and grabbed this file of the heron to experiment with. Fortunately I figured out how to get to the levels adjustments via the 'Threshold' selection. After I opened the levels function, there it was – three eye droppers that each represented the functions 'Set black point', 'Set gray point' and 'Set white point'. How easy can it be? I was almost as exited as when I received my digital camera. This suddenly opened up a whole new episode in post processing for me. To crown it all I found that my freeware version of NeatImage actually works from within Photoshop Elements 2. Viva la big luck.
All I can say is a very belated THANK YOU VERY MUCH to Gert and Anna-Lu. You made my day.
Sorry folks, I realise that I normally talk too much and now there is no space to say anything about the Squacco Heron. Maybe some other time, but just maybe there is someone out there, in TN, that could benefit from my ignorance.
Post Processing was done with Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0.
Adjusted black & white points in levels, Saturation +9, USM=65% at 0.6 radius & 0 threshold, selected BG with 'Magic wand tool' and reduced noise with Neat Image, cropped, and resized for TN. |
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