On Golden Pond - Trumpeters

[Randy Stout]

The fall color has faded now in Michigan, only a the oaks hanging onto their dull leaves. Two weeks ago the yellow maples were still great at the local bird sanctuary. This shot was taken just as the rising sun hit the far shoreline, and the brilliant yellow reflections made the water glow. The birds were not directly lit by the sun yet, making for an interesting exposure challenge.

D4 600VR f/6.3 1/640s ISO 1250 Gitzo/Wimberley. As low as I could go there.

Post: Shot as vertical, very slight crop for comp. The yellows were so incredibly vivid because of the lighting, that I had to lower the luminosity of the yellows in post a bit to balance against the birds. Selective sharpening.

Advice and comments always appreciated.

Cheers

Randy

[Doug Brown]

That water is just incredible Randy! I like how the birds have identical poses. At first I thought about removing the blue cast in the birds, but as I read your description of the shot I think leaving the colors as is is the correct choice. I also like your placement of the birds relatively high in the frame; the reflection of their long necks adds a lot to the image. The only issue I have is the that the bird on the left looks OOF but the line running down the back of its neck seems sharper than the bird.

[Morkel Erasmus]

This is pure eye candy, Randy! Love the colours and the blue-ish tint needs to stay to make them pop.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Randy, good choice to shoot vertical, and I like the similar poses from both swans. I will repeat as above, and Im sure more to follow from others - the colour of the water is simply awesome. An opportunity well used.

[Gabriela Plesea]

Sublime colours Randy! Cannot take my eyes of this image, beautiful and I like everything in it, great processing and presentation!

Kind regards,

[Andre Pretorius]

Agree with stunning comp and colours.

Only crit is the neck and head of the second bird, look like there is a halo running down the neck.

Love the angle.

Stunning image!!

Andre

[keith mitchell]

Randy little nit re the second bird that said this is a simply superb image I keep coming back to it,

Keith.:S3:

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Randy, a very striking, vivid/bold image, almost graphic with the limited colour palette.

I do like the comp and the position of the subjects within frame allowing the reflection to fall down within the lower space. Randy I'm away and using the laptop which I hate, but I do think adjusting the Exposure settings, highlights, shadows, whites & blacks you pull a lot more detail from within the capture. Applying a Curves adj too, just helps emphasis more of the plumage within the front swan, however you may feel what you have is right and runs with how you wish to portray the image.

TFS
Steve

[vishaljadhav]

The water colour due to the reflection makes it all special, the identical position of both the birds takes it over the top
i love it all the way

[Randy Stout]

Thanks everyone for the thoughtful comments.

Yes, I don't like the sharper line along the neck of the back bird. It popped up as soon as I lowered the luminosity of the yellows in the water. No sharpening was applied to the back bird.

Yes, to the subtle blue tint as well. I have tried it both with and without. Could go either way, although I think perhaps it has a subtle benefit as a complimentary color to the yellow/orange

I had done a number of variations on this one, mainly try and reduce the posterization in the background as soon as it was hosted on the BPN server. Although it didn't show on either of my monitors when hosted natively, as soon as I did a preview post on BPN a green posterization popped up in the upper background.

Steve - Def. more detail is possible in the image, mainly in the water, but the posterization effect led me to soften the contrast a bit to try and reduce it.

Thanks again everyone! I truly appreciate the input.

Cheers

Randy

[Karl Egressy]

Beautiful image, Randy. The water looks amazing and the in focus bird pops.

[Arthur Morris]

Hey Randy,

I wanted to love this one as soon as I saw the thumbnail. But.... There are one major problem that was missed by the folks above...

Most importantly, the JPEG as presented is showing tons of clipping (ALT L and hold down the ALT key while hitting the highlight slider...) The clipping is in the yellow and lots on the front bird as well. Whites are quite lacking detail and the same is true of the blacks....

I love the color of the water, the image design, and the two perfect head angles. Next time we meet, bring this RAW file; I'd love to take a crack at it. Or send it via Hightail it.

I ran Photo Filter Blue at the default (25%) and it did a lot to tame both the yellows and the whites. It eliminated most of the clipping in the JPEG....

[Arthur Morris]

ps: the yellows looked a lot better in Photoshop that they do here :( Maybe something in between to keep the yellow glow...

[Randy Stout]

Thanks Artie for the repost and thought process. I went back to the original raw file, and there was no clipping at all, but certainly can see it in the posted image. I will take another pass at it and lower the luminosity slightly to begin with, and also pay real attention to the blacks as well.

It is interesting that this image gave me so much trouble when posted to BPN, compared with how it looked, even in the jpeg, when hosted on my machine. I have occ. seen variation of that nature, but this one was the most pronounced.

Cheers

Randy

[Randy Stout]

Had another go at it, using some of the ideas so thoughtfully given.

Took out the blue tint on birds, lowered the whites and yellows slightly, moved the black slider a bit to give more details on the bill and eye.

Still having problems with the background changing when hosted on BPN ( greenish background above)

Would appreciate any additional thoughts as far as the relative merits of the different versions!

Cheers

Randy

[David Salem]

When I first looked at this one I thought some of the whites looked to hot to me as did some of the water. Your final repost addresses these problems well and made a good shot great.
Love the form and color and I like the comp you chose keeping them higher in the frame. Nice work Randy.

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Randy - the thumbnail jumps off the page, the water color is incredible. I prefer your rp. It has tamed the whites, brought out additional detail and I think it looks better without the blue cast.

TFS,
Rachel