Lead a Quail to Water

[Guerry Dalrymple]

Here is another shot from our trip to the Pond at Elephant Head near Green Valley, AZ. This one was also shot from a pp up blind about 20 yards from the pond. It was shot with my 40D and a rented 500 f4 from a wheelchar accessible quad pod. Settings were 1/1600 at f8, ISO 250 Exp Comp -1.

Please any CC that might improve the photograph.

http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/dd296/WheelchairShooter/IMG_1072The-Pond-for-web.jpg

Thanks

[Steve Canuel]

Hey Guerry,
Quite the family portrait here. I like all the different poses. Lighting looks like it was a bit harsh producing some very dark shadows. Can't comment from experience on the use of flash as I don't own or use one, but I think it would've been helpful here. Would also like to see the entire beak of the bird on the right if you've got the room. Another option, if you're so inclined, would be to crop out the two on the right for a more intimate view of the mom and other babies.
Steve

[Dan Brown]

Hi Guerry. Nice shot! I too wish that we could see the right hand chick beak. If you have a file with this, that would be best, but if not I removed this chick using quick masks and cloning. This chick is still a little close to the edge of the frame and canvas could be added but would be tough!

You asked for anything that might improve this image, so, I also enhanced the eyes of the family, upped the saturation of the whole image, used shadow/highlight on the whole image, reduced the brightness on the swallowing chicks throat (was very bright). Finally, I removed the black crevice that was coming down from momma's bill.

Dan Brown

[John Chardine]

This image has a lot of potential. Dan's rework removes the main problem in the original but is a bit dark on my monitor and there is green cast. I hope you don't mind me reworking the image a bit. I brightened up the image with Curves and removed the green colour cast by adjusting the a channel in LAB colour (PM me for the method). The resultant image is warmer in tone which I think is sympathetic with the colour of the rocks. I then used a bit of selective dodging and burning in with a soft brush to balance some of the contrast.

[Arthur Morris]

Hi Guerry, Both re-posts are somewhat improved but as seems to be the general theme this morning when you work off angle to harsh light you are dead in the water and no amount of optimization skills can save you or the image... Obviously great subjects. Strive to position your pop-up blind so as to have your shadow pointed directly at the set-up or water hole... And either get up earlier or pray for clouds! There is a ton of info on light angle (and a zillion other things) in ABP II.

[Guerry Dalrymple]

Thanks everyone for the input and the reposts. I like them both. Moving the blind might have been possible but I was pretty restricted to the sun behind my back because of wheelchair access. We got out there around 5:30am and this shot was around 7:30am. We actually had to quit because of the heat and sun aroun 8:30am. My next investment is a portable cooler. Thanks again everyone.