What to do with this?

[Mathy]

I like this pic and for once I got a decent focus on a moving object . But the cygnet is lost against the background, specifically its little wings, which were the whole point of the pic. How to improve it? I have PE 10 as my software and I have saved a selection of the cygnet. All thoughts would be most appreciated, cheers Deb

flying_sm1.jpg

[WhoDo]

Maybe someone better than me will come up with a solution for you, Deb. I had a go at burning the reflected highlights in the water and adding a slight vignette. I don't know how much of an improvement it is but it is something, I guess.

flying_sm1_pp.jpg

[ktoopi]

Hi Mathy I thought I'd have a crack.....I am pretty much still a beginner at photoshop ...... here is my effort anyway. I upped the saturation, contrast and sharpened it a bit in photoshop. I also put on a slight vignette.
It may or may not be an improvement

[Ms Monny]

Since the cygnet and the water behind it are both in the same tonal range, it will be hard to make a significant contrast. I would try dodging the area behind and/or burning in on the cygnet to bring a bit more contrast into the picture using layers.

I had a little go at it and it is very similar to the others who tried to do some PP.... (I did a second dodge around the cygnet but didn't bother going around the swan as I am meant to be doing bookwork, not looking at photos!! )

You can see when it is converted to BW that the tonal range of the cygnet and water are very close, and this was done with extra contrast via colour sliders added!

[Mathy]

I am touched that you guys put time into having a crack at it, thank you. Ms Monny, your explanation using BW is most helpful. All of these suggestions have given me some ideas (as they are all improvements), although I do feel that it's going to be very difficult to fix it. However, the little guys are only 2 weeks older, perhaps I'll go and take some more photos on Friday (when the weather is supposed to be overcast) and pay more attention to the light . Once again,many thanks, cheers Deb