Taken this morning at Yarner Wood in Devon. Wasn't great light as sun was head on and the tree stopped the light hitting the woody at all.Quite fancied a backlit woodpecker shot!! alas, not to be.
Upped the levels and sharpened, cropped about 10%
Have to trying to expose manually of late and in these conditions, I did ok with the techs I think.
Critique and all comments appreciated
Graeme
techs:
1d2, 500mm, f8, 1/125th, ISO 200, manual, RAW, as b1, g1325, sidekick
I bet this started out as a very underexposed bird. Now looks too washed out / weird to me. Bird sharp and contrasty but the plank(?) not - all very weird?! Sorry! Maybe if you had a flashgun? Best to try again in better conditions. He'll be back.
I know what you mean Dave. The more I look at it, the worse it seems to look. Perhaps I should have looked at it more BEFORE I posted it
It was slightly underexposed, but not enough to warrant this washed out look. I agree, looks like a load of shadow/highlight has been applied, and it hasn't. I'll have another look at the RAW. Thanks for the comments Dave and Dave!!
I've taken the liberty of checking your file in Photoshop. You didn't convert the file to sRGB before posting, which accounts at least in part, for the washed out look. Also, you didn't use the Save For Web command to create the jpeg. This means that the quality of the file isn't as high as it could be since the file still contains stuff like exif-data. I wrote a piece about using Save For Web and optimising file size a while ago which you should be able to find in the archives. I have now deleted your file.
I think you have the basics of a very nice image. Firstly as Phil said don't forget to convert to sRGB not doing this does mute your colours a little. My suggestion would be to firstly tone down the BG by selecting 'shadows & highlights' but apply it selectively to just tone down the BG and not the white in the bird. Then in 'selective colour' apply some black to your blacks (you have so much detail in the blacks you can apply this safely) then a tad more saturation. This is just a quick fix but a little work in 'levels' & 'curves' would also help. Hope it helps.
THanks for replies and suggestions all. I will have a go at reprocessing the raw and then selectively doing what you have suggested.
This was in the shade being behind the trunk, so it is a bit flat contrast wise.
Bit clueless on the selective stuff as I can never get it accurate enough to not show traces of messing with backgrounds. Perhaps I'll post a separate question regarding this.
Discussion
7 repliesUpped the levels and sharpened, cropped about 10%
Have to trying to expose manually of late and in these conditions, I did ok with the techs I think.
Critique and all comments appreciated
Graeme
techs:
1d2, 500mm, f8, 1/125th, ISO 200, manual, RAW, as b1, g1325, sidekick
Dave
Forest of Dean, UK
It was slightly underexposed, but not enough to warrant this washed out look. I agree, looks like a load of shadow/highlight has been applied, and it hasn't. I'll have another look at the RAW. Thanks for the comments Dave and Dave!!
Dave
I think you have the basics of a very nice image. Firstly as Phil said don't forget to convert to sRGB not doing this does mute your colours a little. My suggestion would be to firstly tone down the BG by selecting 'shadows & highlights' but apply it selectively to just tone down the BG and not the white in the bird. Then in 'selective colour' apply some black to your blacks (you have so much detail in the blacks you can apply this safely) then a tad more saturation. This is just a quick fix but a little work in 'levels' & 'curves' would also help. Hope it helps.
That said I still like your image!
David
This was in the shade being behind the trunk, so it is a bit flat contrast wise.
Bit clueless on the selective stuff as I can never get it accurate enough to not show traces of messing with backgrounds. Perhaps I'll post a separate question regarding this.
Thanks again. Graeme