Comments or articles that relate to my main interest in wildlife, nature and landscape photography.
Below is a blender painting of a Kingfisher photographed at Chester Zoo. The image was created in Photoshop using a base photograph and Photoshop brushes. The brushes used were the mixer brush and the smudge brush both with various settings. Thanks to Mat Kloskowski and Jill Johnson for the techniques I ended up combining.
Most of my Photoshop work in the past few months has been exploring simple enhancements to my Images. My aim has not been to dramatically change the image nor create fine art, but to simply show the images off, especially the focus of the image. I have wanted to make the image to fit my memory of the moment I pressed the shutter. I’ve included below an image of a Fallow Deer at Dunham Massy.
The image was shot using my Canon 5D Mk4. Initial minimal processing was carried out in Lightroom, with a little sharpening using Topaz Sharpen AI. The image was then sent for processing in Photoshop 2024. Some cleaning up was carried out then aspects of the image were focussed on using the TK9 plugin. To keep my mind focused and to help make decisions I am grateful to the YouTube videos of Dave Kelly, Blake Rudis, Mat Kloskowski, and many others.
Other than using Tony Kuyper’s TK9 plugin and some of my actions I wanted all processing to use Photoshop tools rather than external processing plugins. Not that I mind using them if the requirement fit
As the weather was cold I decided to play with a photograph I took earlier when the weather was warm. Edited with Lightroom, Topaz Photo AI, Photoshop and the TK8 plugin.
Another example of texture blending. In this example I have done little blending to the foreground, all the texture is in the background. The blending is on the edges only with a with a low opacity blend all over the foreground to just colour balance the image. (the original Squirrel was very grey)
I have lots of images that I like but are not either pin sharp or they will be low resolution due to the amount of cropping needed. Some images also have poor backgrounds that would involve lots of time to fix. So I have started experimenting with texture blending as a way of re-purposing these images
As staring inspiration for this I have to thank Mat Kloskowski of mattk.com for ideas on how to blend in textures and also how to create your own textures for this.
This time of year, if there is no wind or rain I can enjoy and hour or so just sitting in the conservatory looking at the garden. It is the time of the young birds, the Blackbirds, Starlings, Sparrow and Dunnocks. They often collect in the garden in the hope of being fed by their parents or anyone that may feed them, they don’t care.
You can see the young Blackbird just sitting there no idea what is going on around them, or rushing out from behind a plant pot as a parent passes by with a worm, shouting I am here feed me. Or trying to get another young Blackbird to feed them, sometimes even an adult Sparrow. Watching an adult in the bird bath then deciding to have a go themselves, but not sure what to do once they are in the water. Sometimes you get a young Blackbird from an earlier brood that try’s to get fed as well and gets chased off, only so it can come back and try again.
Young Starlings arriving in numbers, with or without Adults, then just stand around picking things up then dropping them again, including food. You can imagine them thinking ok its in my beak what do I do with this now. Sitting on the hedge trying to pull petals off. Suddenly disappearing on mass as an adult flys by.
The young Sparrows and Dunnocks relentlessly chasing the adults around, sometimes getting chased off as they have got the wrong adult. Sometimes joining the young Starling groups being just as hopeless. Flying off into the hedge almost too late as a cat arrives.
After spreading some dried Mealworms around out lawn we started to get adult and young Starlings, the only way to describe it is invade. Watch how the young have no idea what to do with the Mealworms.
First night sighting of a Fox and Hedgehog this year and both together. The Fox learns not to sniff a Hedgehog too close.
Over the last 14 months, I have not added many new images to my collection, so I have been revisiting some from years past. I have been looking mainly at landscape rather than wildlife. A landscape does not run away!
This started from spending time revisiting and improving Photoshop skills and knowledge using YouTube and other sources, often revisiting some instructors I have been following for years. I have also spent a good amount of time improving my Final Cut Pro skills but have, as of now I have few past videos to develop.
The following images have been edited in Photoshop using Tony Kuyper’s Luminosity Masks, f64 Zone System, Selective Colour adjustment layer, and other Photoshop techniques.
If you want to see the YouTube subscriptions I use, then search for PiXimperfect, Photoshop Training Channel (PTC), photoshop CAFÉ, f64 Academy, Max Kloskowski, The Joy of Editing with Dave Kelly. These are the main places I visit regularly for reviewing and learning Photoshop and Lightroom skills used with my wildlife and landscape.
Three recent samples below (yes a wildlife image slipped in)
