Mama and Baby

[Grace Scalzo]

This little one needed a bit of shelter under Mom.

1.2500, f5.6, iso800
Canon 1dx, 600 f4 + 1.4tc + lowered rrs tripod
Catchlight added to chick's eye and a bit of canvas extended on the left as viewed.

[John Robinson]

Thats a real "aweee " factor shot grace. On a level with the earlier one. Lovely stuff. Every one of these I have done near the nest has been in grass !!
Great stuff.
John

[Ron E Racine]

Beautiful shot Grace. I love the low angle and simplicity of it, nothing distracting in the background or foreground. Details are great. It would be nice if the eye of the little one was just a touch more in focus but it does not really distract from the shot.

[Loi Nguyen]

Hi Grace, lovely shot and great details. I think the light wasn't quite ideal and the image seemed a bit flat to me. I'd try to apply some luminosity mask to see if it would make it better. Personally I prefer the previous image. Loi


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[Binu John]

What a beautiful shot, Grace! Love the composition, exposure, details and POV! The oof sand in the foreground and background added depth to this sweet shot! Very well done!

[christopher galeski]

A beautiful image Grace,good image IQ,nice light,and good eye contact.well done.

[Frank Schauf]

Beautiful portrait, great details and eye contact.

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Grace i just like to echo Loi and his observations .
Just a quick edit with Green channel and Apply image cmd in PS CC and blend modes SCREEN and SOFT LIGHT plus a mask for brushing , just took 2 minutes .

TFS Andreas

[Joseph Przybyla]

Lovely image Grace, I like the tenderness of the two together, the light, color and detail with a perfect background. Thank you for sharing.

[gail bisson]

What a nice shot!
I really like what Andreas did in his repost but have no idea what he means when he describes his PP!!!Seems to have made it clearer and pop a bit more.
Great low POV and I like the flying sand,
Gail

[Karl Egressy]

Beautiful image, Grace. Unfortunately I don't understand what Loi and Andreas are referring to be done in PP.
There is always something to learn. ( Luminosity mask)

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hey boys and girls , slowly i do think some of you guys have no idea on basic PP work in PS , at least for me .
I just used channel blending and made use of blending modes in PS , two layers and a mask , that was all .
Loi was talking about the luminance of this image , he would use the luminance to generate masks to target specific tones to correct or change them.

I would suggest to all of you , who are interested invest some time in that sort of stuff.It will improve your images :bg3:.

I use very often the combo (Channel blending / Blend Modes) just google it and find out yourself , as english is not my native language and i use a german PS version it would make it very difficult to create a tutorial , but there are thousands of them on the web . good ones and better ones.
The most important stuff are masks , i.e. luminance masks.

Just google "Tony Kuyper" , go to his website and look what he has written about the luminance masks and their use ,the big thing is , if you are as lazy as i am , you can buy actions from him to help you . Worth every cent you invest . Trust me .

Cheers Andreas

[Bill Dix]

A beauty, Grace. Repost improves an already fine image. Love the low POV, fabulous detail, and "awe"-some pose.

[Sidharth Kodikal]

A beautiful image with very nice interaction, Grace. I like the tight comp. I'd fix the halo around the parent's head/beak.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Grace, excellent exposure on mom, and good DOF on both mom and chick for F/5.6. Good low shooting angle, and the reds on mom really pop against the BG.

[Diane Miller]

This is a wonderful image, and Andreas has made a good tonal improvement. I'm always eager to refine my PP skills, and do use luminosity masks on occasion, and do understand what Andreas is describing, but I'm always skeptical if such measures couldn't be approached by some tweaks in the initial LR/ACR processing, using the sliders in the Process 2012 versions (LR4 and later and PS CS6 and later) and often augmented by Nik's Detail Extractor and Pro Contrast. (When I say initial processing, I mean on the actual raw file, not using the LR/ACR sliders on a PS file, where the tonal flexibility is already limited.)

For raw processors that don't have that tonal control, such as DPP, then I can see going to these methods in PS. But how much do luminosity masks and Apply Image really extend the control you have in LR/ACR? Sometimes, yes, but I feel the need to use them very rarely.

[Andreas Liedmann]

Dear Diane ,
as always it is subjective how you achieve the final result.And that counts.
If one can achieve the same result in ACR/LR as i did in PS , starting with the low res web file , good. But from my POV not possible , with the same speed as i can achieve this. I work with the luminance of the image to achieve this effect , you have no luminance selection in LR/ACR as far as i know . You have to use brush /gradient or fancy sliders where you have no precise control what is affected and what not.No blending modes /masks available .

My workflow is also coming from the fact that i prefer DPP / PhotoNinja as converter to ACR /LR , who are giving me (subjective) better image quality . And my two converters are somehow simple and limited in terms of local adjustments etc. So i had to overcome this by editing my images in PS .And i need and want to know my tools the best way i can.
And if i invest a 1000 $ in a piece of software , and people do so , and then only use it with levels/curves , USM and downsampling, i would think it is wasted money . I feel it is like shooting with Canon 1Dx and shoot in jpeg :eek3:. Makes no sends to me.

By saying that , i mean it is just my way and if others go their way , fine. I can just only give tips /suggestions for making it easier or with better results , like others do too.

I do not want to say , my way , is the way to go. There are many ways to Rome and i have mine :bg3:. And you have yours.

Cheers Andreas

[Richard Flack]

Hi Grace, I love this image! Well done!

[Joe Galkowski]

I cannot add anything to the expert advice you have already been given, but i just had to say that I love this image. The focus is just where it needed to be and the moment is precious. You captured it well.

[David Salem]

A beautiful intimate moment expertly captured Grace. The contrasting colors and the white sand make this a real keeper. Very nice

[Marina Scarr]

The intimacy this image portrays, Grace, is awesome. OP and RP each look good to my eyes. The details you achieved here are amazing! I think this is daddy and not mamma. The male's pupil is normally round as in this image, and the female's is normally odd shaped.