Posted by Kurt Bowman on April 3, 2011 at 11:57 AM
The Great Blue Herons are back roosting already and went yesterday morning for a few shots. The light was only good for about 15 minutes and then we had pretty bad cloud cover. I like the poses I got mostly, but not very happy with some of them, but next weekend should be better.
I will start off with the good light.
Posted by Kurt Bowman on April 3, 2011 at 11:57 AM
#2
Posted by Kurt Bowman on April 3, 2011 at 11:58 AM
#3 (now the bad light, but cool poses)
Posted by Kurt Bowman on April 3, 2011 at 11:59 AM
#4
Posted by Kurt Bowman on April 3, 2011 at 11:59 AM
#5 (last one)
Posted by Joseph Kayne on April 3, 2011 at 12:10 PM
Posted by Bill Pelzmann on April 3, 2011 at 12:45 PM
I love the poses in #3 and #4.
You could try some selective brightening on the heron bodies. I think you could make that lower contrast light work for you.
Posted by Grant Collier on April 3, 2011 at 12:46 PM
These are all really nice but #4 is superb. #5 is my 2nd fave. IMO, the poses more than make up for the bad light on the last three. 3 & 4 might be improved with a Levels adjustment (move right slider left).
Thanks for the comments Bill and Grant, I probably should have said, these were actually quite a bit darker. I did bring up the shadows and I did a levels adjustment on them already. Do you think they can stand even more without introducing too much noise? That is the reason I stopped where I did. Would love any further suggestions and/or advice!
Kurt, yes, as far as I can see on the low rez JPG, there is still plenty of room for adjustment
I used NIK Viveza to add a few control points on the body of the bird. That limits the adjustments to just the tonal ranges selected. For all points, I increased the brightness by 23% and added 13% "structure" to crisp it up.
Let me know if you want me to delete the image.
Posted by Jeff Hackett on April 3, 2011 at 2:47 PM
The pose in the third one is awesome! It kept me from really noticing the flat light. All are well done.
Hardly 'bad light', Kurt. Just not as spectacular as that wonderful golden light of the first two.
These are all outstanding captures, but #'s 3 & 4 exhibit a stunning gracefulness. Bravo!!
A simple Levels adjustment (white point) with #'s 3 & 4 does the trick for bringing back the fine light.
With #5, I would use the Magic Wand tool with a tolerance of 30, select the sky, inverse the selection and Image->AutoColor.
That seemed to make a positive change.
Thanks for he comments and processing tips....Bill, thanks for the re-work and I didn't mind the re-post at all. Yea Todd and Stan, can easily loose the branches in the first one and John, I will give that a go when I get home tonight. Thanks again everyone!
Discussion
19 repliesI will start off with the good light.
You could try some selective brightening on the heron bodies. I think you could make that lower contrast light work for you.
I used NIK Viveza to add a few control points on the body of the bird. That limits the adjustments to just the tonal ranges selected. For all points, I increased the brightness by 23% and added 13% "structure" to crisp it up.
Let me know if you want me to delete the image.
These are all outstanding captures, but #'s 3 & 4 exhibit a stunning gracefulness. Bravo!!
A simple Levels adjustment (white point) with #'s 3 & 4 does the trick for bringing back the fine light.
With #5, I would use the Magic Wand tool with a tolerance of 30, select the sky, inverse the selection and Image->AutoColor.
That seemed to make a positive change.
Bill Brennan