Help!!!!!

[Harold Davis]

is this salvagable at all with some PS work? everything looks funky. the eye looks funky, the sky aint that great, there's a lack of detail in the bird, and i'm not even sure that the composition is any good. it's about a 40% crop. thought i would have been able to go there without any problems. i can say that the exposure was spot on. i did not change the brightness at all. only worked on the face area and lightened just a bit. is this an equipment limitation or lack of skills on my part?

thanks for the help and i appreciate your comments.

D300, Bigma at 500mm, f/6.3, 1/1250s, +0.7EV, ISO 400, FF at +3.0EV

[Doug Brown]

It's a nice photo Harold. You guys are your own worst critics here on Eager to Learn! I like the sharpness and the compositional elements. I might choose to crop differently, taking some off the bottom and right and adding some on the left. Post the original unedited jpg in this thread and I'll have a go at it. The main issue in this photo is that you don't have separation between the bird's head and the far wing.

[Harold Davis]

thanks doug! here's an unprocessed image. only B&W points established.

[Nonda Surratt]

I think Doug covered it quite well Mr H

[Alfred Forns]

Good advice from Doug !! Can add a couple of things Harold !!!

Have not bee able to figure why images from this birds don't look as sharp as others? I have tried using both D3 and D300 without success. Some do look good but can not do so predictably. Will be out again tomorrow giving a try

I do like your image very much, it is dynamic, good wing position, well exposed and sharp. I think the critical focus is on the wing and not the head area. I don't normally stop down much but would recommend for this set up. Depending on the light would take the ISO as high as practical for a decent shutter speed at say 11 or 16?

[Alberto Oria]

I like it very much Harold I don't see anything wrong with it.

[Doug Brown]

Here's a repost and what I did. Keep in mind that the sharpness took a hit because you gave me the entire image as a 200 KB file:

1. Recropped so that there's a little bit of perch and plenty of room for the bird to fly into.
2. Sharpened the bird heavily (as I said before, detail was lost during compression of the full-sized image).
3. Did selective sharpening of the eye and the talons.
4. Boosted the saturation of the sky a little and shifted the hue some too.
5. Dodged the iris and burned the pupil.
6. Dodged the top of the head and burned the area just behind the head to make the head stand out from the wing.

I'm sure that if I had a RAW file to start with, the bird would look a whole lot better than it does in this repost. I think a recrop is going to have the most impact on this photo.

[Harold Davis]

thanks everyone! doug, i like the crop. i tried about thirty different ones and never came up with one as strong as yours. i appreciate everyone's time. will go back and give it another shot!

thanks again.

[Harold Davis]

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[Alfred Forns]

Great enhancements Doug !!! The little changes make a huge difference !!!!

[Nonda Surratt]

Nice job Doug!!!

Now MR H go fix

[Leroy Laverman]

It's a nice picture. Here's my take on it. I like the inclusion of more of the tree so I added more room on the left side. Just for curiosities sake did you happen to use shadows/highlights in PS or maybe clarity in the raw conversion? The reason I ask is I'm seeing a really wide lighter halo around the wings. Usually this is a result of S/H or clarity although I have seen this in raw files before.

[Harold Davis]

thanks, leroy!! great job with your repost! i like it. i did not use any of the tools you mentioned. i only established the black and white points, selected the sky and changed color, then used a color control point on its face to brighten it a little. i do see the halo, but it was in the original before i ever began to process it. must be the contrast between the bird and the sky that happens naturally or could be a by-product of using a third party lens?

thanks everyone again!! i really appreciate it.

[Nicki Gwynn Jones]

I like Leroy's repost!

[Gus Cobos]

Mr Harold,
I like this the way it is...:):D:cool: It was a pleasure shooting with you and Jill yesterday at Crandon...:cool:

[Oscar Zangroniz]

Great capture H. Like your image as presented. It was also fun spending some time with you guys.
Regards,