Editing Bird Photos: Tips & Techniques with Emilie Talpin

[@chelostgo]

The tip about the bird facing left was a new one for me. Thanks.

[@MrChuckhastings]

Me too.

[@oregonrainrunner]

I'm glad I found this editing series. I think I like the color image more, especially with the reds at the bottom. One adjustment I do with bright whites is to lower highlights, then increase the whites to compensate for the lost brightness. I find that this can bring more detail into the white subject. Thank you for a nice tutorial.

[@davidhardy879]

Thanks once again for a VERY instructive and relaxing tutorial !!! We " amatuers " appreciate Emilie and B&H !!

[@BandH]

glad this series was helpful for you!

[@denisardeche]

Merci Emilie, pour ces tutos ,qui m'apporte beaucoup pour mes photos. Je ne savais pas qu'il fallait que les animaux regardent à gauche !

[@EmilieT]

De rien Denis. Ce n'est pas du tout obligatoire pour les animaux de regarder à gauche mais dans les competitions photos, certains juges font cette remarque. Je trouve que ça aide aussi à rester dans la photo mais c'est un choix perso.

[@shapshot1]

Love your editing and you series of B&H photography...catch ya later! It is not hard to tell you have a passion for what you are creating!

[@BandH]

glad you enjoyed the series!

[@charliedennis3754]

Wonderful video on editing. I like the black and white one

[@jackbaratta5722]

Thanks Emilie! I took your suggestions & practiced on some older raptor pix - texture, sharpened eyes and compositional ideas. 1) I like the color egret photo better than the black-and-white. I think the white pops better and I like the red. 2) do you offer standalone Lightroom classic tutorials? I think I learned more from you in this one video, and I have from several others combined.

[@jowb575]

Thank you so much for this series! You are a wonderful presenter, you explain concepts so clearly and I am able to use right away! I hope that I can hear more from you.

[@BandH]

we're glad you enjoyed the series!

[@ImRockShot]

black and white nice!

[@elliotnamay8805]

I love SilverFX PRo. For the bird in flight, I love the black and white, but I would have added a control point on the very bright top of the wings and added some texture. Beautiful shots.

[@SidneyPratt]

You have motivated me to go to the seacoast and capture some bird photos. I like the B&W photo but the color was great also.

[@barrymedlin6587]

Really enjoying this series, so thanks B&H and Emilie!!!! Love the tips, I never thought about which way the bird is facing, so this is awesome! Love the flying Egret and as much as I love B&W, I like the color version better. I have a similar shot of an Egret in the early morning sun with the wings glowing, so I was thrilled to capture that shot😀. Keep up the great work and thank you!!!!

[@BandH]

thanks for watching!

[@MrTmiket0007]

Merci beaucoup! for sharing another wonderful video like always 👌👍

[@cjk1943]

love the b&w for the bird

[@KemFronabarger]

Merci! Excellent... Salut de Charleston, SC

[@joaquimqueiroz6698]

About the third image, I'd say... the color version is better. Geat tips, Emilie, thank you.

[@ZemiEmperor]

Great as always, Emilie :) I would have a two points about the composition and I wonder if others share my view: 1. I've been doing photography for many years now and watched tons of instructional videos. But this is the first time I've heard that the subject should be looking to the left, since we read from left to right. If it was done otherwise (as you say), it would lead our eyes to exit the picture. I've never though about this but now I did and I think it's a strange reasoning. I would never really care in this case which way the subject is looking as long as it is looking into some empty space. I can imagine that one could even argue that it's more pleasing for the subject to look to the right since that is ACTUALLY the way we read. Someone should create a psychological experiment about this to see to what extent do people care and/or if they spend more time looking at the picture when the subject is facing in a particular way :) And I think it would also look strange if you had all your animal pictures (and even people!) facing left. 2. Talking about the heron picture, you mentioned that one should not centre the subject. Well, I've heard dozens of professional bird photographers that it's completely okay to centre the subjects (but it depends). I think it looks really nice the way you positioned it, but I wouldn't mind it the heron remained in the centre too. I would wholeheartedly agree with you here, but I would be skeptical of making it a hard-and-fast rule. Looking forward to your future videos!

[@EmilieT]

Thank you for your comments. For this beginner basic editing video, I put the emphasis on the rule of third. Always good to know the rules before breaking them. And yes there are times when centering a subject definitely makes sense. For the position of the bird looking to the left it is just so your eye doesn't exit the photo with the bird. Having the bird looking left forces your eyes to go back to the left as we start reading left. That is one theory. I do have a lot of images that do not follow that rule. I like the idea of doing a study in this though :)

[@ZemiEmperor]

Thanks, Emilie :)

[@kirkwest3721]

Firstly I agree with the point it does not really matter which direction the bird is facing. Personally I always aim to have the birds head not exactly parallel to the camera but turned slightly towards the photographer. The club to whom I belong as well as the national body does not allow removal of objects nor does it allow vignetting in wildlife photography. So a warning here, specifically if you want to enter competitions check what is accepted and what is not before submitting.

[@EmilieT]

@@kirkwest3721 Excellent point about checking wildlife rules of your club before submitting.

[@jen3960]

Thank you again for great videos! I think I do like the color vs B&W of the egret.

[@DrClumber]

Lots of good tips here, thanks Emilie!

[@neilcole3406]

Excellent!

[@dewdrop7013]

wonderful tips. Many thanks

[@jimgsewell]

Thank you. I’m new to bird photography and I just learned that about half of the birds in my pictures are facing the wrong direction. At least now I know for the future. I’ve enjoyed your series, keep the tips coming.

[@EmilieT]

Thanks! Nothing wrong about facing left or right. For camera club competitions, some judges might tell you the bird should look left. But then again, sometimes some images work better the other way. So don't feel like you absolutely need to have your bird facing one direction.

[@BandH]

glad Emilie's tips will come in handy next time you go out photographing birds.

[@pepper6253]

Thank you Emilie and B&H for this great series.I learn so much and practiced many today on my group photo walk at our local Bird Aviary and Gardens.

[@BandH]

that's great! we're glad this series was helpful for you. thanks for watching.

[@EmilieT]

Thanks for watching!

[@smkunder1]

Definitely like the color

[@suetownson7747]

Wonderful ideas! So good to watch the editing process. I like the coloured photo of the egret best. Thank you.

[@BandH]

happy you enjoyed the video!

[@dmjdietrich]

Hi Emilie. I enjoyed your LR video. I definitely learned a couple things! Thanks. One comment. Not sure if you have tried this or not, but in the new LR masking - instead of select subject & invert mask, you can select subject then duplicate & invert mask. Saves a couple steps if you have to edit the subject mask with add or subtract and you end up with a mask of the subject and a mask of the background.

[@EmilieT]

Thank you for your comment. I do use this now, way easier. We filmed this video last year right when Lightroom was updated and I was still getting familiar with some of their updates.

[@momdoc100]

Excellent video thank you so much! Prefer the photo in color!

[@dianeconger8989]

Thank you - this was great. I find the Great Herons really difficult to edit, but in this one, I'm thinking color.

[@scottscrufari]

The way you edit is very similar to what I do. I think that color looks better than the black and white but I think that the highlights are blown out on both.

[@cjk1943]

great job on the editing love the video

[@timlien9034]

Great tips. Thanks.

[@michaelwhalen7154]

Thanks Emilie!

[@emiliadeino]

Love this series! And you voice is so soothing.

[@kezonline]

What a great video and superbly presented, thank you! Subbed!

[@BandH]

glad you enjoyed the video, and thanks for the sub!

[@chuckmoorehead875]

Very good video! I like the color image the best.

[@mikemcmorrow2833]

Very nice series. I enjoyed your editing tips, some were new to me especially the recent LR enhancements. I like that you consider Black & White as an option, it can be transformative. In this case, however, I like the more colorful egret. Thank you!

[@BandH]

glad you enjoyed the series!

[@CindyBigras]

Thank you B&H and Emilie, this is such a helpful video showing your process for editing. I learned some things that I will begin using right away such as the ability to flip an image (when desired), how to brighten the eyes, and the intro to Snapseed which I just downloaded it! Thanks! PS I prefer the color version of the egret in flight.

[@BandH]

glad you enjoyed the series!

[@chrismilligan377]

Thank you so much. I have used Lightroom for years and never knew a lot of these editing tips--like the backslash key and how to add and subtract from mask. Thank you! PS I think I would go for the color version of the egret given the red background.

[@BandH]

We're glad you learned something new!

[@KalliatTValsaraj]

Excellent advice 👌👏🏽👏🏽

[@cindyroper412]

Thank you, Emilie. Learned a lot. (Flipping the bird to be looking left...love that tip) I use PS but thinking will try LR too. My 2 questions: If you need to use De Noise in Topaz do you recommend doing that 1st and then do your editing in LR/PS; 2nd questions...how do you then post your edited images to Instagram. I have an acct just don't post there very often.

[@EmilieT]

Do your edit in lightroom and photoshop and then Topaz Denoise. I crop my photo to a 1:1 ratio for the Instagram square look and then upload it to my computer and post it.

[@dretwav]

@@EmilieT That is the opposite of what most recommend (including Topaz). They recommend doing the deNoise early in the workflow before editing.

[@MagneticPortrait]

Hi, can you pls make a video on How to photograph Artwork like paintings/posters flat image in a studio/indoor, big or small. Should one move closer to the painting or should one use the zoom instead to get a sharper photo? What will be the ideal f nr? F4 to f8? Shall I use all the time ISO 100? Thanks so much

[@SidneyPratt]

Thanks.

[@pamelaaphillips-lc6wo]

What was the free app for your iPad you recommend?

[@EmilieT]

Snapseed

[@debrapeasley2606]

I liked the egret very much... BEFORE you flipped it. The original photo looked fine. I think judges would get tired of viewing all those entries with the birds facing the same way.

[@dretwav]

You could save yourself some work if after you finished the background mask you did "duplicate and invert" That would give you the subject and you wouldn't have to redo adding white patch and subtracting between the legs.

[@EmilieT]

Excellent point. I do this now. This was filmed earlier on as they released the latest version and so I was still getting familiar with it. This latest update is definitely packed with amazing tools.

[@jnmcdonald]

like the color version better

[@snappycanon]

Just found this channel having the subject looking to its left looks so wrong to me, it looks as if the subject is staring at a wall, I see a image as a book looking to the right as if reading the page. then going on to turn the page.

[@ivanwhitehall3899]

Prefer the colour egret by far

[@LarryFasnacht]

You could have used your first mask, and select “duplicate and invert”. It’s a new feature.

[@annbrixey9651]

I really like B&W adds such drama

[@macbaar6073]

I edit my bird photos on the fly… 🤪🤣😂🤣😂

[@BandH]

good one!

[@paulcorbeil4364]

5 ** ** * 110 %

[@edshulman1677]

Color on the Heron looks better. The white on the Heron is much too bright. It actually looks blown.

[@cnhoffman]

The right left thing is kinda angering. I mean, to each their own, but there's no "objective" correct direction for the bird to look.