What can I do with a picture of a bird on photoshop to make it creative and spectacular?

Question

Like this pic for example:

http://www.fws.gov/northdakotafieldoffice/images/Northern%20mockingbird.jpg

I want to use photoshop to make it creative and cool. Any ideas? Sketching doesn't really work btw.

Answer 1

If the bird is colorful (not really the case on the example you gave), you could apply a sepia tone to the background, letting only the bird colors show. To do that flatten your image, and run the 'Sepia Toning (layers)' action under default actions on the actions palette (If you can't see it, click on Windows > Actions). Make a selection of the bird, and make sure you have the sepia tone layer selected (the one under the Hue/saturation) and hit delete and you're all done!

I found a few sketch filters that worked nicely (IMHO). I tried the Water Paper (Fiber lenght 5, Brightness 53, Contrast 65). Also I duplicated the layer and used torn edges (Image balance 24, Smoothness 9, Contrast 17), changed the blending mode on this layer to soft light and the opacity to 30%.

The only suggestion I have is to have fun with the filters (click on Filter >Filter Gallery). Try different filter, different settings, stacking different filters together, changing the blending modes and even opacity of layers.

Here are somethings I tried:

- Under Artistic, Plastic Wrap (Highlight Strenght 9, Details 15, Smoothness 3)

- Under Brush Strokes, Crosshatch (Stroke lenght 5, Sharpness 6, Strengh 1)

You can also place the bird on other photos!