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Joseph Przybyla
01-27-2014, 09:13 AM
A Bottle Brush tree is planted outside one of the windows of our house. This little guy has taken to landing on a branch just outside the window and flying up and tapping on the glass.

Nikon D7000, Nikon 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 VRII AF shot at 250mm, 1/500, f/5.6, ISO 1400 (cloudy day), +2/3 EV, normal processing and noise reduction in Lightroom 5, captured from inside the house through the window glass

Stu Bowie
01-27-2014, 10:35 AM
Hi Joseph, interesting story. We had a weaver pecking at one of our windows, and it actually created a small hole through the glass.

The head and beak seems sharp enough, and if anything, I would tone down the BG.

Joseph Przybyla
01-27-2014, 10:50 AM
Hello Stuart, nice to have another set of eyes to see what would improve the image. I think this is better.

That must have been one strong and sharp beak your weaver had, this one has not made an hole but sounds like a woodpecker as it flutters and taps at the glass in the window.

adrian dancy
01-27-2014, 12:42 PM
There is a magical quality to this image but I think the bird needs to be more central.

Joseph Przybyla
01-27-2014, 06:30 PM
Thank you Adrian for viewing and commenting. I will see what it looks like with the bird more centered.

I worked on the image this afternoon because it appeared soft, removing motion blur I think helped. In remembering the bird was bobbing on the branch, normally I would have increased the shutter speed but in this instance I was fighting a high ISO.
Is this sharper and acceptable?

Karl Egressy
01-27-2014, 08:12 PM
Nice singing pose in soft light.

adrian dancy
01-27-2014, 11:05 PM
Joseph
I think the image was sharp enough in your original post. I still think a more centred version would look better but I don't know how much you have cropped, if any, on the RHS. Composition is a subjective thing and at the end of the day what you like is the most important thing. I think you may need to revisit the background. As I said, this image has a magical quality and I think it is worth putting in some careful work to maximise its artistic potential.

Diane Miller
01-29-2014, 07:29 PM
The bird and that perch are really special! Alan Murphy will be jealous! I love the OOF BG, too -- this one is well worth working on. And amazing for through glass! If it perches there regularly, keep shooting! Can you open the window??

In the OP the leaves left of the bird are over-saturated, but it looks like you have reduced saturation globally on the next 2 posts. I would just reduce it just on that area. And a small point but there is an artifact near the bottom edge toward the right side, along an OOF branch.

Joseph Przybyla
01-30-2014, 08:45 AM
Hello Diane, thank you for viewing and offering suggestions to improve the image. Another set of eyes is always welcome. I think I have addressed you suggestions. I also corrected the dark colored tip on a leaf near the bottom right. Here is the corrected image.

Diane Miller
01-30-2014, 11:02 AM
Stacking the 4 versions gives me a clearer picture of the progression. I thought the bird looked less vibrant in the second post (Pane 3) but clicking back and forth between the two in the stack I don't see a difference in the bird itself. In that second one, the saturation of the yellow-green leaves is more tamed, but perhaps a bit too much. I would have kept the effect to just those more prominent leaves on the left -- the ones on the bottom were very pleasing as they were. The real problem with the leaves is that they were flat, with no tonal detail -- maybe more could have been brought out without resorting to Saturation directly. It is often best left as a by-product of other adjustments, as it is related to contrast, rather than being addressed directly. And changing the Hue slightly can also be a good accompaniment to Saturation.

I'm not sure about the removal of the darker OOF stuff in the BG -- I think I might have left it or just lightened it very slightly. It provides a pleasing framework, to me. The third RP (Pane 5) is better in this respect, but overall the whole image there is under-saturated and low in contrast.

The last version, for me, has lost the charm of the original composition, especially by cropping into the leaves on the left. But fixing the leaf tip was a good job.

Joseph Przybyla
01-30-2014, 01:52 PM
Hello Diane, thank you for your time and effort offering suggestions to improve my image. I like this one a lot so I want to get it perfect. Easy to go back in Lightroom to a previous place. Here is another edit and repost. What do you think?

Diane Miller
01-30-2014, 02:53 PM
I still like the image very much, in almost any interpretation, but the yellow-greens have gone even brighter in this last one. I don't know your level of experience with LR's Develop module -- have you tried tweaking just the yellows in the HSL panel? Or it may be necessary to go to PS to make the changes with the bird masked out -- it has subtle yellows that you don't want to subdue.

Just to play with it, I brought the original into PS and did a Hue-Sat layer and went to the Yellow channel. I changed the hue to -4 and the Lightness to -2 -- a very subtle change that you have to toggle the adjustment on and off to see the difference.

In addition, I'd like to get more detail into the leaves, but maybe it isn't there. Trying different camera profiles in the Camera Calib tab might help, but maybe you've done that. (The default Adobe Std isn't always the best and can cause loss of detail in reds-yellows with Canon cameras.)

When I'm working on an image I'll make a virtual copy of each variation, so I can quickly click back and forth among them in the filmstrip for comparison of what I've done. Or use the Compare feature (View > Compare or the 3rd icon from the left under the Loupe View).