PHOTO CLINIC
Now try this...
How Paul can enhance his
froggy close-up with
Photoshop Elements
Clone the background
Take the Clone Stamp tool and clone out
the bark, Alt-clicking to sample
suitable background pixels. Press Shift+[
to reduce the brush hardness when
cloning close to the frog’s head.
Refine
the tones
Add a Brightness/Contrast layer, and
set Brightness to 40. Add a Levels
layer, set Midtones to 1.20 and
Highlights to 230, then invert the
mask and paint the effect into the frog.
Boost the
colours
Cmd/Ctrl-click the mask to load it as a
selection. Add a Hue/Saturation layer
- the attached mask will be identical to
the Levels layer’s mask. Set Saturation
to +15. Crop the image to finish.
STEP BY STEP
Paul says “I recently won a day-long photography
workshop with Wild Arena at Knowsley Safari Park, near
Liverpool. Canon made a range of equipment available
for the winners to try, including the EOS 6D, 5D and 1D
X. The morning was spent driving around the park using
telephoto lenses, and I got to try out the EF 200-400mm
f/4L IS USM Extender 1.4x and EF 500mm f/4L IS USM.
In the afternoon we took macro shots in a small studio.
This tree frog was placed on a twig positioned between
two studio lights, and a fine water mist was sprayed onto
it and into the air. I knelt down to take the picture from
slightly below, focusing on the eye.”
We say “You were very lucky to get the chance to try out
all that high-end kit, Paul, although of course, your 7D
and 100mm f/2.8L are no slouches either, as this image
shows. Amphibians and reptiles make great wildlife
subjects, thanks to their colourful and intricately detailed
skins, and tree frogs have the added appeal of those huge
eyes. You’ve focused this shot nicely to ensure the eye
is sharp, although the depth of field falls off a little too
quickly for my liking because of the 100mm focal length
- a slightly narrower aperture would have kept more
of the head sharp. The frog is fairly well-positioned in
the frame, but the object that looks like a piece of bark
in the bottom-right corner is distracting, as it butts up
against the frog’s chin and is similar in colour to the frog’s
underside. I’ve cloned the object out; this is a relatively
easy job, as the background has smoothly gradated and
blurred tones, although it’s important to preserve the
slightly out-of-focus edges of the frog’s head. With
that done, I’ve made the frog stand out more from the
background by lightening it, and boosting the colours and
contrast with adjustment layers. Finally, I’ve cropped the
image to make the frog a bit larger in the frame.”
Canon EOS 7D
Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L IS USM Macro
Aperture f/14
Shutter speed 1/160 sec
Tree Frog
BY PAUL DIXON