Eastern Bluebird

[CM Prince]

Taken today in NC. There are no LR or PS adjustment to the picture other than "Save for web" to resize it.

Taken with a Nikon D610, 1/250 sec at f / 5.6, ISO 800, 280 mm w/70-300 lens, tripod.

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All C & C welcome

just trying to learn

Thanks for looking

C M

[Diane Miller]

Nice to see a representation of the different bluebirds here. These are a stunning blue!

But raw files (if it was a raw and not a JPEG) really do profit from LR (or other raw converter) adjustments. In this case the image appears somewhat underexposed. A correction for that would enhance the image. If you are shooting raw you have a lot of leeway to correct things like that, if JPEG, less.

This looks like soft, shady or cloudy light. That is a case where the camera will underexpose if left on "middle" exposure. Overexposing an image like that (especially with no whites to blow out) will give you much better tonal range when you bring the exposure back down in the raw converter.

And there is not an embedded profile, although when I assign sRGB (on opening in PS) the appearance is unchanged, so I assume you did convert to sRGB. See the sticky here about seeing images correctly.

Nice to see this one is still nesting -- hope to see more of him! Mine have flown the coop.

[CM Prince]

I have both raw & JPG, the picture look so good to me I didn't adjust anything. I will play with the raw and see if I can make a better picture.

Than for the reply

[CM Prince]

This is the raw file adjusted with LR5

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[Diane Miller]

Exposure is better but I think you might be able to do more. What slider adjustments did you make? LR 5 has wonderful capabilities.

[John Flynn]

Pulling up the shadows seems like it may help.

[David Kenny]

The repost looks better. I like the detail you were able to bring out in the eye and the shadows are lighter. The bird actually looks sharper to me now.
- Dave

[Diane Miller]

The image was underexposed initially and still needs to be lightened more with the repost. You can see that in the histogram, which is an exposure meter on steroids. Rely on it more than the monitor.

You can do better than this on the raw file, but this much underexposure seriously compromises what you can recover even from a raw file.

I pulled the Shadows slider full right, increased teh Exposure +0.45 and brought down the highlights slider about halfway. Also did a slight crop. On you r repost, the tail is just touching the edge of the frame, which isn't the most pleasing.

[Diane Miller]

The focus point also has hit the eave of the birdhouse. Always select one focus sensor (the center one is often the best) and get it on the bird. Make sure there is no movement between acquiring focus and shooting, or else be in AI Servo mode (Nikon calls it Continuous Focus?), so focus will shift as needed. Not easy with a twitching bird, but you'll learn to do it with practice.