Posted by Barry Southon on June 12, 2012 at 12:20 PM
My thinking was that either this species or the Avocet would provide the opportunity to improve technique in controlling both the black and white feathers simultaneously so that was the objective.
From a hide Canon 1D3 prior to going sick Canon 800mm on tripod and a full gimbal (which I'm really getting to like)1/6400 sec f/5.6 ISO 800
subject distance started 150ft then closed rapidly. I thought at one stage it was coming in the hide.
Hope you think it worth looking at and Critique,Comment and Advice always most welcomed and appreciated, thanks for looking.
?? Why does the larger version of postings seem to give a far better result, or is it my eyes??
Posted by Paul Rosser on June 12, 2012 at 12:27 PM
The image looks much better large Barry, the detail in both the dark brown and white plumage is great, although I do think you could lighten it a bit, and still retain the detail in the bird. Nice image!!
Paul Rosser.
Posted by Barry Southon on June 12, 2012 at 12:36 PM
Paul
That's my thoughts too and I'm seeing a pink fuzz on the legs on the small image I need to take more water with it. I often get comments on the darkness which may be my settings somewhere. Thanks for your comments.
Posted by Paul Rosser on June 12, 2012 at 12:39 PM
Yes I see it too, if you look at the large posting, it's not present, and the whole image looks a little less noisy and brighter. However you do have dust spots on the large one, lol.
Paul Rosser.
Posted by Barry Southon on June 12, 2012 at 12:43 PM
Paul
I can cure dust spots but fuzzy legs are something else.
Posted by Kim Connolly on June 12, 2012 at 12:57 PM
It's a lovely shot, the background water is beautiful.
Hi Barry,
I'm not sure what you managed to do to the small jpg, but to get the best out of it, the image needs re-processing anyway.
Firstly you need to clone out the dust spots as noted by Paul, with the spot healing tool. Then you need to straighten the image - I'm guessing that it needs something like a 3-degree CCW rotation.
After that you need to address the exposure; it looks like its about a stop under exposed. Best to do this on the RAW file in ACR - push the exposure slider to the right until you start to see the highlight clipping and then back-off a little. At the same time you could open up the shadows a little by pushing the Shadows slider to the right a little way.
If you aren't very comfortable with Levels, Curves etc, open a curves adjustment layer. When the curves panel opens, click on the little button in the top right corner. This will open another set of options - select Auto Options. This opens another dialogue box. If you are using CS6 select "Enhance Brightness and contrast" then hit OK. Now reduce the opacity of the adjustment until the image looks natural. If you are using CS5, select "Enhance Monochromatic Contrast" in the Auto Options and also put a tick in the "Snap Neutral Midtones" tick-box. Again adjust the opacity of the curves adjustment layer until you thing it looks natural.
Finally, when you post the image to NPN UK, you need to convert the colour space to sRGB and in the "Save for Web" dialogue box, make sure that the "Embed Colour Profile" box is ticked.
Its quite a nice shot of a bird that is rather scarce in the UK, so its worth spending a bit of time on the processing.
Posted by David Sewell on June 12, 2012 at 2:08 PM
I agree with previous comments, it could be a little lighter and still retain all the detail. As for pictures looking better larger, I think they usually will. I suspect most people prepare at 1200 pixels, and downsize to 720 later. I certainly do. You are bound to lose some detail in that process.
Discussion
9 repliesFrom a hide Canon 1D3 prior to going sick Canon 800mm on tripod and a full gimbal (which I'm really getting to like)1/6400 sec f/5.6 ISO 800
subject distance started 150ft then closed rapidly. I thought at one stage it was coming in the hide.
Hope you think it worth looking at and Critique,Comment and Advice always most welcomed and appreciated, thanks for looking.
?? Why does the larger version of postings seem to give a far better result, or is it my eyes??
Paul Rosser.
That's my thoughts too and I'm seeing a pink fuzz on the legs on the small image I need to take more water with it. I often get comments on the darkness which may be my settings somewhere. Thanks for your comments.
Paul Rosser.
Paul
I can cure dust spots but fuzzy legs are something else.
I'm not sure what you managed to do to the small jpg, but to get the best out of it, the image needs re-processing anyway.
Firstly you need to clone out the dust spots as noted by Paul, with the spot healing tool. Then you need to straighten the image - I'm guessing that it needs something like a 3-degree CCW rotation.
After that you need to address the exposure; it looks like its about a stop under exposed. Best to do this on the RAW file in ACR - push the exposure slider to the right until you start to see the highlight clipping and then back-off a little. At the same time you could open up the shadows a little by pushing the Shadows slider to the right a little way.
If you aren't very comfortable with Levels, Curves etc, open a curves adjustment layer. When the curves panel opens, click on the little button in the top right corner. This will open another set of options - select Auto Options. This opens another dialogue box. If you are using CS6 select "Enhance Brightness and contrast" then hit OK. Now reduce the opacity of the adjustment until the image looks natural. If you are using CS5, select "Enhance Monochromatic Contrast" in the Auto Options and also put a tick in the "Snap Neutral Midtones" tick-box. Again adjust the opacity of the curves adjustment layer until you thing it looks natural.
Finally, when you post the image to NPN UK, you need to convert the colour space to sRGB and in the "Save for Web" dialogue box, make sure that the "Embed Colour Profile" box is ticked.
Its quite a nice shot of a bird that is rather scarce in the UK, so its worth spending a bit of time on the processing.
David
Thanks I'll work through the process as you've detailed Phil I'm sure I'm screwing things up within the PP settings to a large degree.
All a bit infuriating when you know you've got a good shot, then I make a pigs ear of the PP.
Keith.