Golden Pond Mk3

[Glennie Passier]

Third time lucky? At least his head is facing the right direction and is well lit. Still the busy BG that is proving hard not to have at this location. I was of two minds whether I should prune the foliage in the front RH corner, but decided it sort of framed (or anchored) the bird. It does show what a narrow little creek this is.

I have followed Diane's instruction - IN ACR -Highlights to the left and shadows to the right. Just tweaking black. No sharpening or NR.
In PSCS6 - H/S Layer - Red and blue sliders -3 desaturted Topaz denoise over BG. Resized and smart sharpened for posting.

Now that I've posted I can see a slight magenta cast on his head and wing feathers.

Canon 5D2
Sigma sport 150-600mm @500mm
ISO 1250
1/400 sec @ f6.3 (Sorry Steve!)
Monopod

C&C Always welcomed and appreciated.

[Stuart Philpott]

Hey Glennie,wow I feel like i've been reading on goldenpond for ages now,tis a big book full of wonderful information. I'm playing catch up Glennie:w3.

I can see that slight pink cast on the wings but not the head,my monitor isn't calibrated though. Mate as always just my simple thoughts,it's the nicest/best image of the series by far for me the light on the head is part of this i think,the second factor he's more relaxed than in the other two so his head feathers have more " physical depth" to them not so pulled down compare the head shapes Glennie,maybe he is just simply getting used to you but that for me personally(and I'm stressing that it is personal because I keep ducks) it makes this image.

Glennie, I think it's cracking I also deeply admire how hard you are trying and one can see that in your images:cheers:

take care

Stu

[Glennie Passier]

Stu, you are 100% correct. I also keep waterfowl. And the body language of this bloke is telling me he is relaxed. Relaxed enough to stop and take a drink of water. He put his head in the air, as they do, to swallow.
Yes. The on goldenpond has been an epic. But well worth the read!

Looking forward to seeing some more from you Stu.

[Jim Keener]

I cheated. Looked at Mk2 without commenting then Mk3. This one was working with you. Like a portrait model for Peter Hurley, pulling the chin up to tighten the dewlap. It looks as if there is a bit more on the LHS? Also, what do you think about bringing the crop down, both top and bottom? Lessening the area of the BG leaves and perhaps giving vertical balance to the bird and reflection. Is there a way to separate the tail a bit from the background? I don't know how it might be done, if at all.

I'm jealous of your bird and admire how you are working it. A beautiful image I'm enjoying viewing.

[Diane Miller]

Yes, you got a lovely head turn with some light on it. Major. And lovely light on the water behind it. It pays to keep trying! Work a scene until you get the maximum it can offer.

Tail is a bit lost in the BG but it looks a bit soft anyway, so maybe that's OK. If he (she?) had glided a few inches forward you may have had the best of both worlds (or ends) but hard to know. They don't often cooperate, these silly things.

I don't mind the FG vegetation -- does give a sense of place and doesn't look that easy to remove anyway. I might consider a gradient burn from the top to darken the brightest leaves.

Keep 'em coming!

[Glennie Passier]

Thank you Jim - I did have a look at a smaller crop like you have suggested, but decided he looked a bit cramp. And I didn't want to lose any more IQ than necessary. Yes. That tail is bothersome. I especially didn't sharpen it, because it looked so noisy. I don't think I would be able to separate it from the BG.

Thank you Diane - As mentioned to Jim, that tail was just so noisy. Is that because of the black? I ran Topaz over the BG and the bird's black tail. And didn't select the tail when smart sharpening for posting.

I also thought the leaves looked a bit bright on the top, so now I'll do some homework on how to do that!:S3:

I do have a Mk 4 Version coming, if you not sick of wood ducks.

[Diane Miller]

If you can expose to the right there shouldn't be much noise in the darks, but there is always some and it will show up if you increase exposure or Shadows. The worst case is a B/W bird where you can't go very far to the right without blowing highlights.

If it's too bad you can work on it by masking for the dark areas and doing NR there (or not sharpening there, as you said).

I only do the default sharpening in LR/ACR and then usually sharpen the JPEG very slightly after it's created. Sharpening the master file can cause issues with artifacts that don't show until you resize and export a JPEG for posting. You can always sharpen a composite layer which you can turn off if necessary for the export. Or just have a separate sharpened version. What ever works, just so you have an out.

[Glennie Passier]

Thanks Diane. I really believe I am getting better at this. Or at least it's starting to sink in. As you have said above - I don't do any sharpening at all (except for the default) in ACR, although I have been guilty of moving the Luminance slider in ACR but as you have said, time and time again, try to get it right in camera. The only sharpening lately has been on the jPEG for posting.