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How To Edit Wildlife Photos Quickly With Photoshop Actions
Background and Gear
In the past year, I have discovered a photography LOVE: photographing wildlife. When I traveled to Australia and then Alaska in 2012, I discovered my love for taking pictures of whales, kangaroos, and bears. Show me any creature roaming around in the woods and my face lights up. I recently discovered a local nature reserve with trails and plenty of wildlife, even in the heart of winter. So, I grabbed my heavy Canon 70-200 2.8 IS plus my Canon 5D MKIII, threw on a thick down coat, gloves, and snow boots, and headed out to this wooded area 30 minutes from my home.
“ME Photography”
Not only did I get mild exercise, far more than I would sitting behind my computer at my desk, I also photographed deer and a few squirrels along the way. I definitely want to make a commitment to myself to get out at minimum once a month to photograph nature and wildlife. It makes me happy. Make sure you do photography for yourself, “me photography,” in addition to client work or pictures of your own family. Take time to photograph things that warm your heart and give you pleasure.
Editing Wildlife
I have been getting asked a lot lately, “what action set should I buy to edit wildlife photos?” We don’t have many nature or animal images as examples on our site. In fact, we barely have any non-people images. Historically, MCP Actions customer base has been portrait and wedding photographers. But, the good news is that our Photoshop actions and Lightroom presets work equally well on outdoor nature images and animals and wildlife.
Below I will demonstrate how our Photoshop actions can impact this squirrel image. I will post a deer photo edited in color and B&W within the next few weeks.
My Go-To Photoshop Actions for Outdoor Wildlife Images
- I started both edits with a vertical crop to remove distractions and straightened the feeder. I also cloned out the roof from the building. This way I did not have to do it twice.
- After making a snapshot in Photoshop, I worked on the color version. I edited it with the MCP Fusion Photoshop actions: One Click Color and Exact-O-Sharp. Then I ran the MCP Newborn Necessities action called It’s a Blur and painted on the background. Lastly, I sharpened.
- For the B&W version, I went back to the snapshot that was cropped and straightened. I edited it with MCP Four Seasons Winter Whirlwind base action + Barren. Also ran Hemispheres for contrast and Burn Me Up to darken the background. Lastly, I sharpened with Razor Sharp, which is also included in this set.
If you are interested in seeing more edits on wildlife and nature, please add a comment and let us know. We’d also love to hear if you prefer the color or black and white version.
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I will love to see more wild life editing, animals in general and I like the color one
Please! I would love to see more on editing wildlife. It is my favorite subject to photograph. And yes, I prefer color as well. Heading to Alaska for the summer and hope to have lots to work on. Thank you!
I enjoy your wildlife editing. Especially the color ones.
Definitely the colour edit.
Would love move wildlife actions and how to use them. Definately the colour edit. Thanks.