Editing Bird Photos: Tips & Techniques with Emilie Talpin 

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

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.

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

love the b&w for the bird

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.

black and white nice!

Excellent!

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

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 !

Excellent advice 👌👏🏽👏🏽

Lots of good tips here, thanks Emilie!

Definitely like the color

Merci! Excellent... Salut de Charleston, SC

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!

wonderful tips. Many thanks

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

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

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!!!!

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.

Love this series! And you voice is so soothing.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

great job on the editing love the video

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

Great tips. Thanks.

Thanks Emilie!

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

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.

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

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

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.

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!

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!

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.

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.

Thanks.

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.

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

What was the free app for your iPad you recommend?

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

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.

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.

like the color version better

I really like B&W adds such drama

5 ** ** * 110 %

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.

Prefer the colour egret by far

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

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

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.