Wow, you caught a great moment there. I agree it looks a little flat and the reds are rather dull. I don't have elements so I'll let others comment on how to spice it up.
I need to be honest and frank, but the image is not sharp. I know it is a great moment and you want to make it work. The light is very contrasty to begin with. I think the only thing you can do is try and warm up the white balance a little and maybe add some saturation, but that's about it. I think it is a 'miss', I'm afraid. I would suggest staking the nest out and approach it from the side rather face on as here. Wait for the sun to pass behind a cloud or shoot in early morning or late evening when the light is warm and soft.
The shooting situation really needed in-fill flash to fill out the deep shadow area, not much can be done post prcoessing to add back the missing light and zing.
Is this a cropped or full frame image - if the former then it sort of explains the focussing challenges referred to above, and is also likely to mean noise in the shadows if you try to improve things in P/S sadly, particularly as it's a touch under-exposed generally (the sensor has been "fooled" by the large amount of white in the image and under-exposed by around a stop I'd say - only the sunlit part of the tree looks right).
Fill flash would certainly have helped (and judging by you being at ISO 800 it's obviously a shady spot) but Elliott is also right - it's about picking the right lighting conditions and it'll be either early or late sunshine or a bright cloudy day to make the contrast less of a problem.
Should have a few more days still judging by chick size so get the hide out again if you can!!
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7 repliesCanon 20D
Canon 300mm f;4
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Tim
I agree with Elliott's comments! A wonderful moment caught though!
Dave
Is this a cropped or full frame image - if the former then it sort of explains the focussing challenges referred to above, and is also likely to mean noise in the shadows if you try to improve things in P/S sadly, particularly as it's a touch under-exposed generally (the sensor has been "fooled" by the large amount of white in the image and under-exposed by around a stop I'd say - only the sunlit part of the tree looks right).
Fill flash would certainly have helped (and judging by you being at ISO 800 it's obviously a shady spot) but Elliott is also right - it's about picking the right lighting conditions and it'll be either early or late sunshine or a bright cloudy day to make the contrast less of a problem.
Should have a few more days still judging by chick size so get the hide out again if you can!!
Mark
Mike