I have decided I am calling what I do with my images when editing them – PHOTO ART.
Hopefully its taking a photo and turning it into art, hence the name 🙂
This is an Australian Wedgetail Eagle I took at Currumbin back in 2011, I was inspired by some magnificent raptor images from Suesy Fulton in one of my texture FB groups and I knew I had these images in my archives.
Post Processing Steps:
- Masked out the background of the bird in ReMask and tidied up in a layer mask in PS
- Duplicated the layer and ran through Impression for the painted look and blended into background with a layer mask
- Blended painted layer over original and blended into background with a layer mask
- Bought in a Daily Texture background and fiddled with its placement til it worked
- Fiddled with the eagle colour tonings a bit til they had a richness and similarity to the background
- Duplicated the background and blended in with soft light to tonally even out the image
- Added a Native American saying
- Added a faint grunge framing for a bit of textural interest and vignette effect.
Here is the original image for comparison
Its a good shot, the eagle is sharp and clear, especially the eye, beak and neck feathers. The background is not too messy and nicely blurred and shows a natural environment.
But it lacks the WOW factor, and the Photo Art version has more of that in my opinion.
Do you agree? Disagree? Love to hear why!
Learning to See Light 
I think it depends on what you really want. Do you want an art photo of the bird which is awesome as a piece of art. Or do you want the real photo just with the back ground softer and out of focus. The photo is beautiful but the background is a bit dark. to show the outline detail of the bird. (Do I make sense?)
Im a bit confused by your question back to me, as I have both, the photo art and the photo.
it’s great to compare to the original (which is nice too), however I do prefer the rich colours of the photo art. Perhaps it is just my monitor, but the eye tends to stand out a little more on the original, perhaps brighten the highlight a touch more would make the eye stand out a little bit?
I have actually done some touch ups around the eye, great minds think alike!
🙂
Absolutely agree. It looks fantastic.
Thanks, I like it a lot 🙂
Lovely, looks fantastic
Thanks Im planning on getting it printed and hope it will be even better
Hi, loved both pictures…but as a NPS lover, prefer the natural shot with the following improvements, in my opinion…Clone back the hi-lights, as distracting, Vignette the background & edges, add a slight Lomo-ish..and you have a brilliant prize winning nature shot!
LOL given the strict rules around natural history images, all of that editing would disqualify it for any competitions 🙂 But I appreciate the feedback 🙂