Nature Photography How To

Inexperienced wildlife photographers often struggle to properly expose birds, whether they're sitting still on a tree or in flight, and underexposed subjects are the typical concern. This problem is particular acute when our feathered friends are depicted against a bright sky.

Fortunately, there's a quick Photoshop fix as you'll see in the video below from the Birdwatching Journals YouTube channel, and the technique is so simple that it only takes six minutes to explain. It's all about brightening the bird and rehabilitating a background that’s overexposed.

Today's unnamed instructor walks you through a step-by-step edit from beginning to end while providing helpful keyboard shortcuts that speed up the process. He begins by making a selection and hitting Command "C" followed by Command Shift "V." By doing this he's copied the bird and tree branch in the foreground of the scene.

The next step is selecting the Remove Background option in Photoshop's Properties panel. Sometimes the result you'll receive is less than perfect. In this case its easy to make precise refinements by placing the bird and the branch on separate layers. To do this Layer Masks are the way to go.

You'll learn how to use Photoshop's Magic Select tool to facilitate the process under certain conditions. The Lasso and Pen tools also contribute to accurate results, and the instructor explains how these work. At this point, things are significantly improved.

Here's another important tip: "Before you change this into a Smart Object what you want to do is make sure there's nothing that should blend in better" like a distracting shadow in the example provided. This problem is quickly rectified with a few strokes of the Spot Healing brush.

When you're satisfied with how everything looks you can go ahead and Right Click to convert the layer to a Smart Object. The last step for a perfect transformation is to deal with the sky before putting everything together.

If this lesson strikes your fancy be sure to visit the Birdwatching Journals YouTube channel where there are more shooting and editing instructional videos.

We also recommend watching an earlier tutorial we posted in which a Canadian pro demonstrates how to capture tack-sharp outdoor photographs with whatever camera you own.