I was checking the "Opus" gallery and found that there are lots of images of this species. So, what the heck: what will another hurt. As you are all aware by now, I do post processing ( from this time on simply PP) on nearly all of my images. Preliminary work is done in Adobe Lightroom 1.4 ( this is a great program for many reasons, not least of which is RAW imageing) where exposrue, light discrepensies, colour adjustments ets are adjusted. From there (with a simple mouse click) it is improrted into Adobe Photoshop CS2. For this image I wanted a very smooth blurred BG. The original was acceptabel but could be just a bit more diffuse and softer. So, a layer is made and "gausian blur" is used to blur the BG more. By the way, Gausian blur, if use judiciously, is wonderful for removing noise before sharpening. Not much more was needed on this image other than some "level" adjustment for contrast; "channel mix" for colour sat ( I don't use the colour saturation applet in the program, not enough lattitude for my taste). This image is then flattened and saved as a TIFF. The TIFF is then opened and a layer is produced. I use "lab colour" and lightness channel to sharpen. Sharpening is done with "smart sharpen" This is then blended to taste.
Hope this is not saying too much. I'm affraid you will be agast at the thought that I don't actually take pictures.
