Lessons 4 & 5 - Slithered from the Archives

I haven't been out for a photography trip in the last few weeks. My excuse is Cyclone Rusty, even though he only lasted a week (maximum). Yes, there were some interesting clouds hanging around, but there was also some not so interesting wind carrying dust - not good for a camera. Although, probably good for photography. Go figure.

So, I thought I would pull some photos from the archives. My Dad requested a post about this one of a snake I took while on holiday with the family at Wooli in Northern NSW two years ago. We found this little fella in the front yard of the house we were staying at. I think I must have snapped at least 50 photos, with this one being the best. Here is how it came out on its own:

I chose this photo for the blog, because I decided it needed to be better. Below is my cropped, slightly edited version. Spot the difference!

That's right - my first attempt at actually photo-shopping something out of a photo. An interesting experience - much more challenging than I had first thought! Basically I used a combination of spot-heal and cloning tool. The biggest problem I encountered (from memory) was finding the right size for the cloning tool. The colour variations in the green don't seem so pronounced at first glance, but get those shades slightly wrong and it looks awful!

On second thoughts, the cloning does look awful - but this is all about learning in the end which brings us to lessons four and five...learn how to use photoshop tools correctly, and always keep your original files when experimenting!