Cool Photography Manipulation for Animal Pictures

Wildlife photography is a sensational word among professional photographers. With such a hype, what all could you possible digital manipulations done on a wildlife photo to make it look better.

Professional wildlife photographer will be a role model for many budding photographers. SLR, lens (various variants), Tripods, Zoom (telephoto, wide angle etc.), Filters (UV, polarizing, warming etc.) will be favorite jargons for those new bees in the photography world. The factors like, time consumed, the effort taken by the experts and the mesmerizing click on the wild species make the wildlife photography a special one.

Editing wildlife photography is the hardest thing for an editor. For he, should make slightest changes in the photo to preserve the content and to enhance the beauty of it. GIMP, PhotoScape and PhotoFiltre are some of the free software available. To make is more professional, it is better to use Adobe Photoshop CS4 or Adobe Lightroom. Let us see some of the cool photography manipulation for animal pictures.

Clarity – this is one buzzword in photos. Clarity slider will help in increasing the contrast in the center of tonal range thereby boosting the overall impression of the image.  This should not be implemented more while working on a portrait. However, while editing an animal picture, this technique can be used vividly. Adjustment brush is available in many animal photos editing software. Use this brush increase the skin tone on the animals. It will just soften the skin, however not to be used over the eyes or hair.

HSL – Hue, saturation and Luminosity. This again is used for skin tone. Use the target selector to make the best use of HSL regulator.

Post Crop Vignette – This is a technique is which the edges of the photos can be darkened or lightened in order to set the center of the image to get all the focus. Brightness and exposure are two other important factors to make the image look stunning. Work with brightness to increase the visibility of part of the image to match it with the rest. Exposure should be used to increase the overall illumination of the image.

Various blur modes are available in most of the photo editing software. Use this blurring effect to reduce the presence of selected entity to escalate the focus to the prime object of the photo. But strict control should be taken while using blur effects, extensive usage will lead to spoil the beauty of the image, especially if it’s a wildlife photograph.

Adobe Lightroom is most sought after software in this domain.  Some of the unique features of Lightroom are importing the images, aligning them, giving tag name to the photos. Lightroom can choose you the best of your photos. The “view mode” feature of Lightroom will help in finding the better of the two or more similar captures. “Photosafe” is a plug in that help to protect the image from being deleted accidentally.  

Non-destructive image enhancement system – this is important while working on precious photos of animals. In Lightroom, it is impossible to over write on the original image. The software always asks for export, which in turn create a duplicate of the image with enhancements.

Understanding the Value of Masking an Image

For whatever thing a basic understanding is required first. Without understanding its significance, knowing the subject or imparting the knowledge would be very difficult. Even in photo editing understanding the value of masking is very important.

Generally a mask is used to hide or protect the face partially or completely. A tattoo also helps in covering some areas but it does destroy the hidden part. Any design or painting also hides the face and gives a new look. But any ways these would create certain damage to the skin. In the same way masking is also a technique in photo editing which helps in the modification of the photo without destroying its original part. It can be said as a non-destructive photo-editing tool.

There are 5 methods of masking in a Photoshop. They are:

1.     Pixel masking: This is based on determining the opacity based in the picture. The area, which is masked, can be said as zero pixel area and area, which is not masked, is non-zero pixel area. This is very ideal for masking any imagery or hairs on faces etc. But this cannot be used on all pictures. Smooth edges and perfect edges would be difficult with this mask.

2.     Vector masking: This can be used where the previous one fails. Vector mask helps in masking out clear lines, shapes such as boundary facets. Here it is difficult to differentiate the pixel opacities.

3.     Quick masking: here using pixel-editing tools can make a selection. This is merely a visual depiction of the selection made.

4.     Clipping masks: This comes handy when there is multiple areas require similar masking. It is possible to group the layers and mask the group entirely. The best example is to mask a bunch of grapes. A single grape can be masked and a layer could be created, then the layer should be grouped which can be masked easily by clipping mask.

5.     Clipping paths: Here the entire picture can be masked. The graphic designers in studios mainly use this.

Other than these methods there are also other methods like combination of two types of masking, multiple masking, type masking etc.

Masking takes a bit more time when coming to editing pictures. It is sometimes a tiring job, which requires more attention and concentration. But the fruit of these efforts would be marvelous. Another importance in masking is that about the clipping path. Clipping path has become the popular profession, which is demanded by many fields of people. Without doubt nowadays each and everything requires proper marketing for its success. In that case photography is also a vital part in it. The masking provides a good range of advertisements that attract the eyes, which looks on it.

As the demand of this aspect is more the techniques of masking have also improved over a period of time. When compared to previous times now it is very easy process. When the concept and application is understood this is the most wonderful tool that creates a beautiful blending of images. As said earlier a better understanding of the values of masking is very essential before getting into it.

Vector Art Conversion - The Preferred Way to Show Off the Company Logo Online

The logos are the signature of any business. They are designer with utmost care and innovation. But what if the logo loses the designated high quality once they are enlarged? If so then the whole purpose of designing logos so meticulously remains defeated.

While some point out defects with the logo designs, the truth lies elsewhere. In most instances the real problem is not the design but the logo being stored as raster image. This is where vector art conversion can be helpful. It is the preferred way to show off a company logo online.