Deer Pic Problems

[emartin]

I am having trouble editing my images! I would love for someone to take a look at this deer pic and tell me what I can do about the blown look in the background. The first is the original and the second is my attempt to fix it. I don't have photoshop yet, I'm using Corel Paintshop Pro. Thanks!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/3625704...in/photostream
http://www.flickr.com/photos/3625704...in/photostream

[JFSanders]

[JFSanders]

Ok, lets do some housecleaning first. If you have a before and after situation such as this, there is a forum for it. The Mods will probably be along to move it so don't freak out. Secondly, to insert a photo into your post you have to do one of two things. Either use the photo icon and paste in your url using a photo that is no longer than 700 pixels on its longest side or you can use the attachment icon in the "go advanced" and upload a suitably sized photo from your hard drive and it will show as a thumbnail in the bottom of your post. You can upload more than one photo. Actual photos in your post instead of links will get you many more responses.

On to the photographs and processing. Your background is not blown it is out of focus which is not a bad thing in this case. Your main problem is that your focus is on the deer's back and shoulders not the eyes. You did not include the EXIF data from the original photograph so I cannot say for certain but it looks like your DOF is too small and you arrived at this by using the longest focal length available to you and taking whatever f/stop was presented along with whatever shutter speed. This photo is underexposed by at least one stop, probably two. If you want to save this in post you will have a better chance if the original is a RAW file.

Ok, went to your Flickr and pulled the EXIF for your photo:

Camera	Nikon D3100
Exposure	0.002 sec (1/500)
Aperture	f/5.6
Focal Length	270 mm
Focal Length	277.0 mm
ISO Speed	450
Exposure Bias	0 EV
Flash	Off, Did not fire
Orientation

It says that you were shooting in Auto exposure mode and the camera gave you the best it had at that focal length. And that your photograph is a jpeg fine. Your WB was set to auto as well.

This makes it more difficult to correct the lighting but not impossible. As to the focus you are stuck there. Can't make a soft photo sharp no matter how many times you run it through unsharp mask.

Jim

[IABoomer]

I like some of what you did with your edit. Here's my take on it.



Here's the Lightroom settings (minus the crop)



I used the white on the neck as a white balance spot. It warmed the image up nicely. The contrast, brightness, fill light, black level, and clarity gave it some punch. The vibrance gave the color a little edge. The crop gets the subject out of the middle of the image and creates a nice balance against the brush to the right of the deer, IMO.

As an alternate crop, I think a vertical could work if you wanted to incorporate the treeline in the background for some more color.

[emartin]

Thanks for the input! I'm still pretty new on using a dslr so I know I have a lot to learn. I have trouble focusing on certain points of things like this, I didn't really have much time to take with her because after I slung it up to snap she darted after about two or three shots on burst mode. I knew it was softer than I would have liked it to be, I guess it's a live and learn thing that I better check my settings ahead of time. The sun was so bright behind her that I wasn't quite sure if it was an acceptable shot but also she was posed to pretty to just throw away. Thanks for straightening me up on my post, I've never posted before. I usually just lurk around and read other's posts to learn what I can.

[JFSanders]

Always focus on the eyes. And continue to post it will help you to get better.

Jim

[edbayani]

with cs2, duplicate layer an with levels, lighten a bit and click on the middle eyedropper and click on the white above one of the eye to remove cyan cast.
with layer mask, and a very soft brush, brush the upper portion with black to erase the lightened area and reveal the original layer below. then with a small hard brush carefully brush with white the head of the deer to restore the erased image and have a sharp edge. sharpen a bit since the deer's head is a soft. crop.