Five Advanced Post-processing Steps Every Bird Photographer Should Master

^{Note: This tip comes from page 9 in Tobie Schalkwyk’s free eBook - Getting Started in Bird Photography}

Bird photography is a genre where the location and lighting surrounding your bird subjects are rarely perfect.

This makes post-processing your best friend.

There are many post-processing packages, and you may be already using one.

One post-processing app is a bit more obscure, and it is called TouchRetouch. This is an inexpensive app with no yearly fees, and it has a very special trait that I absolutely love. Let me show you.

The above photo is a wonderful close-up of this bird in its natural habitat. However, the two foreground sticks are unacceptable as they draw most of the visual weight from the bird.

Using three TouchRetouch tools, Line Removal, Object Removal, and Clone; I removed the distracting sticks from the photo.

Tip #1 - TouchRetouch takes some practice, but once you master it, You will fall in love with the app.

Tip #2 – The second advanced post-processing tool you will want to master is the Brush Tool. The Brush allows you to edit small specific areas of an image. One edit would be selective sharpening. You can sharpen a bird’s face and feathers while leaving the surrounding areas less sharp. This has the effect of pushing a viewer’s eyes right toward your subject.

Tip #3 – Along that same thinking, you will want to be able to selectively blur background areas that are distracting. This is accomplished by applying some masking and then using a blurring option- typically the Gaussian Blur.

Tip #4 – Selective spot removal with the Clone Tool can eliminate unsightly distractions.

Tip #5 - Selective Curve adjustments can provide micro changes to highlights that are almost clipped and shadows that are too dark.

Want more? If you want to learn more about bird photography, and capture beautiful shots of your own, we recommend downloading and printing out Photzy’s 10 Bird Photography Cheat Sheets (Special bonus available now!)