This is my first posting in several years and I've chosen a humble subject for my first upload.
I bought a Nikon D7100 a couple of weeks ago, and it has reignited by passion for nature photography. My previous camera was a Nikon D300. Along with learning this new camera, I'm also using Photoshop for the first time, and watching endless training videos, etc.
All comments and suggestions are welcome.
Nikon D7100
Nikkor 75-300 @ 200mm
Aperture priority f8 1/160
ISO 640
Cropped, adjusted levels, etc, and sharpened in Photoshop.
Comments
6 commentsHi David:
Glad to hear the passion has been re-ignited. Modern digital technology is really great. We're all lucky to be alive and be photographers at this point in its' evolution.
You have an image with nice potential. The bird was posing nicely for you. The white sky background behind the bird is a bit unforunate.
The image has a muted feel to it and my suspicion was confirmed when I looked at the image. I made a few adjustments using the full range of tones in the image by adjusting the histogram, did some selective dodging/burning to bring our more detail. A couple of targeted saturation tweeks to bring down the intensity of the green, and boost the feathers.
Here's the result. See what you think. Capturing good images in the camera is always important, but the post processing end is equally as important to producing that final product.
Thank you very much for your comments, and example. I'm reworking the image in PS now.
Good start david. I await the repost !!
Cheers
John
Welcome back, Dave. Detail looks pretty good and that's a great bg. To my eye, it looks like your plane of focus was on the bird's side and hte head is just a hair less sharp than the side. I might run a bit of sharpening on the head. You can select the head area using any of the photoshop selection tools, do a copy and paste to put it on a separate layer, select that layer and run your favorite sharpening routine. I might brighten the bird as a whole just a bit as it looks pretty dull against the bright bg (which is really cool).
I've reworked this several times in PS. . . my head is spinning with layers, masks, smart objects, raw filters. . . etc. etc. etc. Lots and lots to learn. I'm not entirely satisfied with this, but I've learned much.
I surely appreciate the wisdom here at NPN.
Good details David and an interesting split BG.
I call this the House Sparrow BTW. I don't know how much you cropped from the front, but a bit more space there would better IMHO. I see you've already got some other great tips, enough said..
Good to see you back