Edit My Photo – Photography Project at Epicedits
I decided to accept the challenge proposed by Brian Auer in “Edit my Photo” Project.
Here are the original image and the final image:
Step 1: Croping
By looking at the image you see that it is basically right composed, but, the subject needs to be closer to the viewer of the frame. Therefore, I need to crop the picture…. respecting the standard format…. or… and here comes my idea: a square crop keeping the rule of thirds in place. Not all pictures are fit for a square but this one is: the subject is little and placed over a clean background.
Step 2: Desaturating
The colors of the original photo are a bit washed-out but instead of increasing the saturation and contrast, I prefer in the case a picture like this (who doesn’t have many colors in it) to desaturate it. However, since the background is the see, I give it a teal tint. (Image -> Adjustments -> Black % White).
Step 3: Contrast
Now I want to bring some contrast to the frame, so i go to Image -> Adjustments -> Curves -> Medium Contrast. As you can see I only used preset functions since I feel like I don’t need anything more complicated for this picture: simplicity is a golden key to beauty. 
Step 4: Highlighting the Shadows
I am almost pleased with the look of the result except one thing: the subject is more like a black silhouette, with not so visible details over it even if it’s in perfect focus. I went to Image -> Adjustments -> Shadow/Highlight and made the bird lighter… but wait a minute: this step distorted the entire background by making it too white. Lucky, the bird is easy to crop from the background and putting it into a different layer saves the background.
Step 5: Tri-Tone
After the Shadow/Highlight effect, I played a bit longer with the colors of the bird (only) because I seemed to me too green. Hahaha let me make it yellow! That was a joke, of course. I added more blue instead of green so that the result was converting the picture from duo-tone into tri-tone. Once I’m happy with the bird’s look, I merge the layers so I can go on with the final steps.
Step 6: Noise Reduction
I move myself farther from the monitor to see if everything is good enough: neah… I need to brighten the image. Done. Now it’s OK. I resize it to 900×900 and get into my NeatImage plug-in in the Filter Menu. Carefully not to oversharp the edges of the bird, I remove the noise that formed during the above processes.
Step 7: Border
I resized the Image Layer a few pixels less than the Background Layer and added an inner stroke of 3px from the Layer Style Menu. Once again, simplicity at the maximum.
Tags: photo editing, edit my photo project, photo manipulation, photoshop
Hi there… Thanks for stopping by at my blog,. It was nice of you to leave a comment.
I think that your image was greatly affected by the fact that your editing environment is not neutral… Your magenta environment has pushed your colour to a very highly saturated green/blue which is magenta’s opposite colour.
Having said that, I should also say that I love the square crop… It’s a favourite… always.
Hi
oh, that teal color – I made it on purpose. I didn’t wanted the picture to be either B&W nor magenta. Thank for the comment.
Hi Lau, I’m one of the fellow entrants to Brian’s project.
I chose your entry as one of my three favourites, and I thought you might like me to share my thoughts on your photo here.
This is what I posted with my vote to Brian’s blog:
“This was a very tough call for me, between this an a couple of other entries. I was torn between the aqua tone being a gimmick or a real contribution to the image. Leaving the colour aside, the crop and contrast were technically brilliant. In the end, this interpretation’s unique charm won me over.”
Good luck!
Thankyou very much Neil
I’m glad you like it so much.
I chose your photo as the winner of the challenge.
The colors were a bit surprising but that is the very essence of ART. The square crop and your contrast and clarifications really won me over. It goes to show that a very “ho-hum” photo can be turned into a work of art with a bit of effort. I spend much more time with post processing raw files than I do taking the pics.
A JOB WELL DONE!