I saw this bird on a bird feeder while visiting in Colorado. And its significance is not the bird which is apparently a very common one, but it's that I FINALLY, after 3 years, think I understand layers and masks in Photoshop! This has about 8 layers in it, of the original photo, some textures, several masks, and several adjustments (lighting, hue/saturation, color balance, etc). All because it was such a beautiful bird but on such a boring feeder. Not to remember how I did this so I can do it again, but mostly I'm just happy that I can see how much I've learned from taking the photo classes I've been in. Photo was mine, two of the textures were from 'DailyTextures.com"
A beautiful portrait of this bird. I'm glad that you are seeing the light. Send it my way please. Every time I think I've got it, when I try layers and/or masks again, it doesn't seem to work right. It is getting a bit easier. But it doesn't help when the program is updated and things change a little bit.
Beautiful picture and great colors. Your comments about Photoshop worries me. I haven’t subscribed to it so far because I’m afraid it’s too complicated and you seem to confirm my fears. Fav for the photo and for your success with layers and masks
@caterina Ironically, it is both terribly complicated and very straightforward. I was just stuck on the idea of layers and had made it very difficult for myself. I realized with this image that the process was the same across a range of situations and that it was quite do-able. I think PS is very handy for a lot of little cleanup tasks. And very powerful for something like this. I've found it worth the photographer's subscription so far. And there are so many videos that can help -- I just didn't like watching them alone, but doing it within the class to serve particular purposes worked really well for me.
