Flamingos in Flight, V2 by taffy

Flamingos in Flight, V2

I was fortunate to be able to go on safari in Tanzania in 2 years ago this month. As Junko and I are working through the PS course, this morning, I returned to those photos to practice using selection tools and adjustment layers. The tricky lighting this time was the very bright sky versus the birds which were rather dark in the RAW version. PS allowed me to select the birds, adjust their lighting in one layer, then inverse it in a second layer and focus only on the sky. The composition could include more of the sky and the fluffy white clouds.

Here were my original attempts:
To solve it 2 years ago, I just cropped in, went with a faded sky, and lost most detail in the birds by denoise-slider to the maximum: https://365project.org/taffy/the-also-ran-ph/2019-02-22
I also tried it in b&w which I liked better back then: https://365project.org/taffy/365/2019-02-22

As we worked together this morning, we could not have imagined the horrors of this afternoon.

Update: Thanks Allison...replaced version with brighter highlights and Mike, worked on edging.
This is stunning, you did a wonderful job on it.
January 7th, 2021  
Great capture
January 7th, 2021  
Absolutely beautiful!
January 7th, 2021  
Wonderful capture
January 7th, 2021  
Kat
Super capture
January 7th, 2021  
Instant fave! Fabulous capture! I'm so glad you're working w/PS and it allowed you to bring these beauties to their full glory. All the work it took makes it even more fabulous a shot. Great work.
January 7th, 2021  
A perfect example of how to make the most of that LR lesson! Beautifully taken and processed.
January 7th, 2021  
Thanks for the neat photo and the info!
January 7th, 2021  
oh how marvellous
January 7th, 2021  
Wow...What a super capture
January 7th, 2021  
Amazing.
January 7th, 2021  
Magnificent!
January 7th, 2021  
Beautiful! Today was a horrible day -
January 7th, 2021  
Wow I can just imagine their slow graceful progress through the skies. What a sight!
I feel for your country Taffy....it’s bleeding but all will be well in the end...you will recover! Prayers for you all. 🥰
January 7th, 2021  
I never picture them up in the air only ever standing elegantly on one leg
January 7th, 2021  
They look so elegant. Nice to see the comparison. You are learning so much during your Photoshop course
January 7th, 2021  
Terrific :)
January 7th, 2021  
You have an a lot of amazing trips to draw from. Some day you need to do a photobook with best photos from these trips.
January 7th, 2021  
Wow, great capture
January 7th, 2021  
Beautiful. Thank for including the other versions for comparison. I learn so much from this community.
January 7th, 2021  
Beautiful image. Great shot with all the colors and contrast...
January 7th, 2021  
Very nice! Well done.
January 7th, 2021  
incredible perspective
January 7th, 2021  
Your PS edits are stunning. I cannot turn on the television now, I’m heartbroken.
January 7th, 2021  
Love your new edit.
January 7th, 2021  
Wonderful focus in this. Great capture of the action.
January 7th, 2021  
Nice effort with the masking. I commend you for constantly trying to learn and up your skill. What if you just popped the highlights a little in Levels to brighten the sky?
January 7th, 2021  
Nice capture of these big giants! Wish we had these birds in California! In PS, to enhance your subject extractions play with the Refine Edge Tool brush while in the Select and Mask mode. Also search on the internet for using the the mask brush in Overlay (not Normal) mode either in white or black to help is sharpening edges of the extracted subject. Have fun and let's hope 2021 straightens itself out and is much better than 2020!
January 7th, 2021  
Superb.
January 7th, 2021  
@mikegifford Thanks Mike! VERY helpful as one of many things I've wondered about to make it realistic is how to handle the sharp edges. I know about overlay layers and use them but hadn't thought about how they could help with edging. I really appreciate this help. And sharing your wishes for a more sane 2021. It has had a rocky start, but this morning at least brought an end to the legal side of the election process. Whew. Yesterday still seems like a really bad dream (or unrealistic TV pilot!).
January 7th, 2021  
beautiful image and edit
January 7th, 2021  
Pretty! Ik like it in B&W too.
January 7th, 2021  
You did a great job. I find difficult to work with layers because I am not enough patient. I use Nik Collection Viveza plugin to do this.
January 7th, 2021  
wonderful!
January 7th, 2021  
Nice job!
January 7th, 2021  
Wonderful capture.Fav🙂
January 7th, 2021  
Beautiful.
January 7th, 2021  
@falcon11 Thanks for the suggestion -- it definitely brightened up the sky as you can see -- I love this easy photo replace tool Ross added.
January 7th, 2021  
@mikegifford I did a little more work per yours and Allison's suggestions. Replaced the original with the (I think is) improved version. Thank you!
January 7th, 2021  
Great shot and edit.
January 7th, 2021  
The detail is wonderful
January 7th, 2021  
A good improvement. You had nice details of the birds in both color versions.
January 7th, 2021  
It looks great- what a special shot!
January 8th, 2021  
Wow well done what a great shot and edit!
January 8th, 2021  
Amazing to catch them in flight!
January 8th, 2021  
Great shot fav
January 8th, 2021  
Beautifully done
January 8th, 2021  
super
January 8th, 2021  
Nice work on these.
January 8th, 2021  
@mikegifford and @taffy...are you saying the refine edge brush should be in overlay mode?Or the layer? I can see some halving around the birds but what a difficult choice to play with!
January 8th, 2021  
Lovely shot, great detail!
January 8th, 2021  
your ps journey is fascinating, taffy, and very impressive. i know bits and bobs of what you're talking about but would love to have a more in-depth understanding - i tend to bodge around. i find the quick selection tool pretty frustrating to use, not to mention the refine edge tool in select & mask. i watch tutorials and it works a treat for them, but rarely for me. undoubtedly operator error! love this image :)
January 8th, 2021  
Absolutely terrific processing. Great stuff. Congratulations.
January 8th, 2021  
fabulous fav ...
January 9th, 2021  
@jgpittenger @taffy Jane, when you're in the masking clean-up mode and you can select between the Refine Edge Brush Tool R or the Brush Tool B stay in the Normal brush mode. But if your in the regular layer mode and select the layer your masking and select the layer mask, you can set the brush mode to Overlay either in black or white depending on what you're trying to achieve/mask out/in, and this will help in creating very nice edges and lines for your extractions. Its a pretty advanced trick and you can even adjust the opacity of the brush to "nudge" pixels one direction or another to help in difficult extractions. The parts of the top layer where the base layer is light become lighter, the parts where the base layer is dark become darker. Areas where the top layer are mid grey are unaffected. So when masking you can "push" the mask one way or the other.
January 9th, 2021  
Beautiful photo of these gorgeous birds! Thank you for providing a link to the shot before your most recent edits. I have to say thank you for sharing your journey through your Photoshop lessons. It is fascinating and very inspiring!
January 11th, 2021  
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