3 Secrets To Creating Wildlife Photos With Depth And Dimension (Bonus Post-Processing Tips!)
Have you ever felt like your photos were a little, well, flat? Are you looking for ways to add depth and dimension and give them more of a 3D feel?
In this video, I'll share the three primary methods I use to help create depth and dimension in my own photos, plus I'll show you a few of my most common Lightroom techniques that can take it to the next level. Check it out - this is gonna change the way you shoot!
Here's the link to the photoshop background de-focus video:
• Use Photoshop To Blur ...
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Thanks for putting this together!
What fantastic images! Best on any photographic channel by far. Good tips too, thanks Steve
One of your best videos, thank you!
This was really great. Thank you so much. We spend a lot of time trying to get sharp, focused shots and you've helped us with that. Now, the important post processing work, and this video is super!
Steve, this was excellent. The post processing tips were especially useful.
Well done Steve! Your explanation was very helpful. Love your channel. Thank you.
Thanks for another helpful vid, Steve - always appreciate your uploads.
Such a great and helpful video - thank you Steve!
Great video Steve and so well explained. The images are already stunning even before you enhance them!
thanks so much for the helpful tips.
Great video Steve! Very informative.
The tips are one thing Steve, they are great and I will certainly remember them on my next shoot and LR session. What makes this video special, are your fantastic images, and the inspiration I get from them. I just wanna go out and shoot right now. Thanks a million, you are awesome!
Thank you so much
Excellent summary of all that post processing can help and be used even for an old timer with LrC
Great information thanks for the inspiration, cant wait to apply some of these techniques to my photography
great stuff Steve!
Another great video . Thank you Steve
Really enjoyed the LR tips. Thanks
As usual, your video is so usefull. Thanks.
Terrific video. Thanks. I appreciate that there's both an in camera and in computer approach.
IMO, with digital half of the fun is at the computer :)
Excellent video, with many many useful tips, thankyou sir
Great content Steve always happy to see a new video from you!
Glad you enjoy it!
I'd love to see more of you editing. I'd even buy a video book, just with you edits. I find your post processing ideal.
I'm thinking about putting something together :)
Hello Steve, One more greate video, Thanks for all you do. Keep well, keep safe and enjoy life.
This is the best video EVER.
great vid! thanks!!
Great video Steve, as always! More tips to put into my bag of tools. I appreciate the work that you do. Thanks again!
Thanks for watching!
Giving away ALL my secrets 😂 Always a pleasure to see that photographers I admire pretty much have the same processing methods I came up with independently.
Wouaou, that was such an excellent video Steve, thanks a lot!
Thanks so much!
Wow. Thanks for these quick thoughts on creating depth and dimension.
You very welcome!
Wonderful video, Steve. As always, you express useful concepts with clarity and simplicity that even the less skilled of us can incorporate into our efforts. Many thanks!!
Many thanks!
As so often Steve, a great and so well explained and visualised topic. And it feels on my large monitor as if I'm just sitting across the desk from you! thanks
Thanks so much! Next time will be even better - I think we're going to pull ourselves out of the past and actually start doing 4K videos :)
Thank you, Steve.
Happy to help :)
Bravo!! what an Amazing knowledge you have! I'm more into wildwife photography than anything else, but still these tips apply! Great great stuff Steve!
Awesome, thank you!
Great video Steve. I’ve been doing this a long time and I learned a few techniques with this video.
That's great to hear - Thanks so much!
My favorite wildlife photographer!
Thanks so much! That's very kind of you to say :)
Great comments and tips. I agree, the vast majority of processing adjustments need to be local rather than universal. But, like all things the more I do it, my results slowly improve. Thanks.
What great tips!! I just tried them with a few of my bird photos and they look infinitely better. Thanks so much!
Great to hear!
Thank you for this video! Very helpful👍🏼
Glad it was helpful!
Excellent as usual!
Thanks so much!
you want a good ratio, just not a far background, but also being closer helps.
Thanks Steve. Super helpful. I have your ebook on Wildlife photography. You’ve helped me tremendously.
Thanks for the kind words :)
Great tips. Thanks.
Glad it was helpful!
Great video. I prefer moderate aperture and a very distant background, so the whole animal is sharp while the background is defocused. This creates a well-defined separation line around the animal. When the aperture is wide open, some parts of the animal may be a little defocused, compromising the separation to the background.
This was really good. Thanks.
Glad you liked it!
Great video and tips, just what I expect when watching one of your videos
I appreciate that!
Great video, as always 😃
Thanks so much!
Hey Steve, I bought your book secrets to the Nikon auto focus system, I shoot with a 7200, 750 and an 850 and I’m already starting to see improvements in my keeper rate. I think I’m going to buy the book on wildlife photography as well. Thanks so much for the pertinent and great information.
Thanks for the kind words :)
Great video. With the new masking tools this can be so much easier than before. Sometimes I will desaturate the background a bit as well.
Same here, but you gotta be careful with it. I find sometimes it can take depth away - especially if it's a cooler background and a warmer subject.
Great job in this video! My best wishes for a happy and photographically interesting 2023! I have learned so much from you. :) I'm keeping this video for further reference.
Thanks so much!
Just downloaded your "Ultimate Nikon Z9 Setup & Shooting Guide" - invaluable!! (It did take a whole evening to get through..... :)
Thanks so much! Wow - you got through it in an envying? You're a faster reader than most :)
Wow, great tips and tricks! I need a computer program to assist me in using and deciding which of all the various techniques to use 😯. Another way to get depth can be with dodge and burn to sculpt the subject. Thanks for the video.
The post processing tips were just a small bit of what I do to help an animal stand out, there are so many options! Have fun!
Your Vero account is great. So is your IG, but IMO the photos render so much better on Vero.
Thanks so much!! It's weird about the image rendering too. I upload based on each platforms image size recommendations. I might just try the larger Vero size for IG and see if they look better.
Randy Bocksnick(Mont) Great content and I enjoy your sense of humor! Have ever you ever been to Montana? Today is my 78th birthday and have been shooting Nikon for an even 50yrs!
Thanks so much! And yup, I've been to MT - mostly for YNP (although I'm a fan of Bozeman too - wish I could afford to live there LOL). Happy Birthday!
As @casperblom2278 said, well-explained and -illustrated -- thank you, Steve! Good point about not over-warming a scene -- more isn't necessarily better. A good Part 2 to this video might be correcting color cast in LR -- color range vs. curves vs. HSL.
LOL, most of the time I just use the temp sliders (although, I suppose I do use the tools you mention as well).
Hi Steve, thanks for these tips! For future videos, a small request (my bonus tip for you): the viewer should never have to reach for the volume control twice in the first few seconds of a video. Your music intro is much louder than your narration so I end up turning volume down when the surprise of the loud music hits only to have to raise the volume shortly after to be able to hear your educational words. Balancing these volumes will make your videos even more excellent.
Steve, something I’ve been experimenting with in PS is applying the Orton effect, along with lightly dodging and burning the subject to enhance the localized light and shadows on it. Specifically, I’ve played with it on GGOs with their gray-brown muted colour. After LR - including the kind of localized adjustments you talk about here - and Topaz, I move the shot to PS, clean up any unsightly branches, sticks and stones, then D&B the bird and any trees or limbs with directional light on them. Then I apply the Orton effect, which can be adjusted to taste, from tiny to pronounced - I usually set the opacity of the Orton mask at 12-18%. But I’ve experimented as high as the low 20s, which gives a more glowing and painted effect - definitely gets less realistic as opacity goes up. My final touch, which works great with dish faced owls, is to mask out the effect on the owls face. I do this with a low opacity/flow brush so it blends well with the rest. The slight softening and glow effect on the bird’s body and the background seems to enhance, to my eye at least, the light, shadows and depth of both the subject and background. Have you tried it; any thoughts? Applying landscape technique to critter shots is sacrilege to the Church of Wildlife Photographers, right 😉?
Yes, I have used that exact technique in fact. Sometimes with the Orton effect, sometimes with just a bright glow type effect (very similar to Orton). I typically only use it on small parts of the image, only occasionally using it all over except the face area - it really depends on the subject. The image at 2:45 in this video has a little "bright glow" added :) It can help the subject stand out. Thinking about it, I can probably do an hour-long video on just these kinds of techniques LOL!!!
@@backcountrygallery as a postscript, did you buy your wife the OM1/150-400 combo. Just a reminder that Valentines Day is coming up; plus, I really want you to do a video on the advantages and compromises of M43. Cheers.
@@brianlemke6017 Not yet :) After using the OM-1and then going back out today with the Z9 and a1, I don't think she wants it anymore. The OM-1 is good, but it doesn't stay on the eyes as well as the a1 and Z9 it seems (I didn't really use it at all, but this is what she tells me :) ) So, I'm glad we rented and didn't just buy it outright.
In the example of the bird with a Radial Gradient, where parts of the bird were affected when the background is being adjusted, rather than use a Brush to clean up the mask areas covering the bird, use a Background selection, click its 3 dot menu and select Intersect Mask With... and draw a Radial Gradient with a good Feather around the bird, and no Invert. The mask now avoids all of the bird (Subject), but graduates out from the subject for treatments such as negative exposure and clarity.
That works really well :) Thanks!!!
Great tips (and results!) Steve! And..."an abusive relationship with your Saturation slider"... Ha! :)
Thanks :) I was overly happy with myself about that line :)
Wow, I actually do some of these. Maybe I'm learning. All interesting. For me though, I always have to add walking away for a while and then coming back to it. It's kind of 50/50 between being happy with what I've done or horrified. 😂 Trial and error is good though. Thanks Steve.
LOL, I do the same thing. I'll make changes, come back, and either wonder what I was thinking or I'll hurt my shoulder patting myself on the back :)
@@backcountrygallery 😂
I almost feel tempted to say, thanks for showing me what not to do. Oh, I did like a lot of the tips. I can't even mention them all. But for example at 4:02 you write that "the bird was just too distant". Well, in the crop you show to the right, I think the background is perfectly defocused. I wouldn't want it any blurrier than that! In many of your other pictures I feel that the creature might as well have been cut out and placed against a carpet on the wall. And the bird at 13:30 has a very dark body that stands out a lot more in the unedited picture than in any of your edits; I don't think I'd want to darken the background. If I've taken anything away from this video, it might be: Don't choose too wide an aperture! And in post: if it ain't broken, don't fix it! In fact, when I edit my photos, I often find that when I've tweaked and tweaked until I was nearly satisfied, and checked the before and after, either there was hardly any noticeable difference, or I liked the before better. But thanks for the video anyway.
Before the video even plays. It gets a thumbs up
Thanks so much!
Very helpful video!
Glad it was helpful!
Hi Steve, great video as always. Dont you use the dehaze tool to separate the background ? I have got good results dehazing the background on the negative scale..
Thanks for the kind words :) Like you, I don't get along that well with Dehaze. There are times I'll use it, but most of the time I'm not happy with the results. It likes to create color casts as it works.
A great video! Another technique that is image dependent is to photograph the scene with a lens that doesn’t entirely blur the animal’s surroundings. Then in Photoshop use a Gaussian blur with a linear gradient mask to introduce depth perception in the image. The subject should be excluded (ie painted in black) from the blur mask. This places the animal in its habitat and draws the viewer into the image. Obviously the magnitude of the blur and the fall off of the gradient must be adjusted to maximize the perception of depth perception and is highly image dependent.
Thanks for the kind words :) Actually, that technique is in the other video I mention. I use it from time to time to knock down a background that's too sharp. Gotta be careful though - most of the time a little is all you need :) Also, you might give Field Blur a try instead of Gaussian. I've used both and find that Field Blur often looks more realistic.
@@backcountrygallery Thanks for the feedback. I previously used the Field Blur filter and for no particular reason started using the Gaussian filter. I want to do some comparisons between the two and also include the lens blur filter. I posted an image of a squirrel in the Post Processing Forum last Friday which was processed with the Gaussian filter but a gradient was not used with this image. I'm currently processing some images of a gull landing on ice using a gradient. I generally save the blur mask as an alpha channel so it shouldn't be particularly difficult to perform some comparisons. The squirrel image had a very busy background which was located just behind the animal and was controlled by a Brightness adjustment layer and the blur.
@@jackmcewan6308 I just checked out the image and the blur looks natural. As you say, probably best to compare them. When I was experimenting with it, I kept favoring the field blur. YMMV :)
Photoshop has a neural tool that works really well, outputs to layers so you can fix what AI missed.
@@joelwexler I haven't played with that too much. When it first came out I gave it a casual once-over but it didn't seem to offer much. It's probably better now, I should give it another look :)
You can do only so much in changing the background or your point of view when you are in the field shooting wildlife. Yes, you can sit on your knees or lean left/right but in the field it is mostly point and shoot. The moment is gone swiftly. Knowing your subject and planning the shot up front will help ofcourse but most shots are made in the field in a blink of an eye. And then some come out great, others won't. So great tips but be aware you can not plan and stage everything. You are always depending on light, wind and the animals :-)
Very true. When I see a subject, my attention immediately goes to the surrounding area as I approach to see if I can maneuver into a position that works better. In some cases, I'm trying to create depth, sometimes just a nicer background, but I do whatever I can to get the most out of the scene. Like you say, sometimes it's over very quickly!
Hey Steve, have you ever considered doing a subscriber photo critique video?
I have thought about it - I don't know how to keep it to just subscribers though - that would be great.
Hey Steve, Wesley from the Netherlands here. I love your videos. As an Nikon shooter myself, I’m going to buy your Autofocus book, mirrorless edition. However I do have a question. Do you also have a book where you explain how to edit wildlife pictures? It’s all completely new to me. In the past i was only shooting landscape pictures.
Thanks for your interest! I'm working on a video workshop series that'll be for sale this year. :)
@@backcountrygallery that sounds great 😍😍 looking forward to it!
Can you suggest a kit for amatures bellow 2500 bucks?
Awesome video, great tips, I just need to remember to keep it natural. Thank you.
why nikon photos looks better? is it lens or software?
Probably coincidence.
@@backcountrygallery i thought you know. something in nikon when it comes to nature photography. Its lighting... i think it could be their exposure software.
I think the difference is the photographer! Sony, Nikon and Canon all have great colours
@@flemmingmorgan1929 only nikon pops. i have seen photos from sony and canon. they are dull
This guy himself a university.
this is an interesting topic. may i suggest you speak slower, and break your presentation into two parts, one for the camera technique and the second for the editing. i have concentration/absorption difficulties and rapid fire speech presents difficulties.