Using the Nik Tonal Contrast Filter to enhance texture and detail is a well described technique. When using this I noticed how it made the background often look terrible and wondered if using negative tonal contrast may be an option to improve background distractions. I first mentioned this technique in a blog post last year and have since used it often to optimise backgrounds in bird images. Our eyes are drawn to areas of contrast, saturation and sharpness in images and to localise these qualities to the subject can enhance an image and make the subject “pop” from the background. The starting point must always be in camera technique by isolating a subject in good light against a pleasing background. With birds a long lens and a low shooting position goes a long way toward achieving this. Often, due to the nature of the habitat, there will be distractions in the background that detract from the image. Some of these can be approached with healing, clone or patch tools and techniques and at times adding a blur to the background can be useful. I have found using Nik ColorEfex Pro4 Tonal Contrast filter can often provide a relatively quick and controllable adjustment that can improve background distractions. The Highlights, Midtone and Shadows can be adjusted individually and saturation can be adjusted too. I make the adjustment looking only at the background as the changes make the subject look worse. I will often knock saturation back a little with this adjustment. I then mask the changes on this layer to effect only the background. At times this adjustment will make the background look brighter as shadows are brightened to reduce shadow contrast so I will darken down this layer a little by moving the midpoint slider in levels. I then apply another tonal contrast layer with positive contrast adjustments but this time only look at the effect on the bird as these effects make the background look worse. A bit of positive saturation is helpful at times on this layer. I then mask this effect so that it is only applied to the bird. I have found this a useful technique to add to my options in dealing with background issues and by using this 2 step process the appearance of subject and background can be optimised and to make the bird stand out in the image. Here are a few before and after examples – this is a step early in my workflow so none of these are final images but serve only to illustrate the described effect of negative tonal contrast on the backgrounds.