Bird on a stick

[Sidharth Kodikal]

A bird I've heard a million times, and had only fleeting glimpses of, although it's not rare by any means.

Happy to get it out in the open.
This is a Coppersmith Barbet.

Fruit used as attractant.

Canon R5, 600f4, tripod, hide.
1/2000, f10, ISO 3200


Denoise and color correction in ACR. Crop and smart sharpen in PS.
The feathers on the shoulder and chest are so sharp, they look crunchy in the RAW too :)


All feedback and reposts welcomed.

Thanks!

[Daniel Cadieux]

Cool bird, and the perch is very nice with the wrapping stem. Good background details, colours. Did it provide you with a better head angle (I suspect not)?

[Jonathan Ashton]

Super shot good details, I get the impression the image contains too much Magenta.. Loving those whiskers!.

[Sidharth Kodikal]

Good eye, Jon. Thanks!
Used Selective Color to remove magenta and cyan from neutral and black in bird and perch only.
Hope this is an improvement.
Please feel free to RP.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Looks good!

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Sid I did follow your return to BPN with interest ... your struggling with the PP :bg3:
You posted some stunning stuff since then .... congrats to your nice work , the PP stuff will become better for sure over the times .

Regarding the shot of this Barbet ... well not much to find in terms of negative critique or suggestion to improve this shot from my side .
So overall a good solid frame of this lovely bird on a stick . Love the clean BG and the pose of the subject . Stunning details and super sharpness .
As colors are subjective please do not take my color suggestion too strong into account , but I think the colors are off in OP and RP .... very obvious magenta /blue cast across the whole colors . I would say WB is off !!!
Not sure what you did with your RP ... I would suggest to neutralize the image and from that point color grade it to your liking , might be just me .

TFS Andreas

[Sidharth Kodikal]

Hi Andreas! and thanks for the solid feedback. It's much appreciated.
Yes, my struggle with PP is real, but it's been a lot of fun.

I really am just totally winging it currently.
Subjectivity with colors aside, I really need to learn a lot of these terms that you and others have mentioned in this and previous posts, like neutralize, color grade, clarity, HSL, smart objects...

Not sure what sets the WB off to begin with; either something I do in the workflow, or just the high-ish ISO.
Will start again from RAW and retrace my steps.

Cheers!

[Andreas Liedmann]

Not sure what sets the WB off to begin with; either something I do in the workflow, or just the high-ish ISO.

Cheers!

Easy to answer ... it is You and the chosen WB in the chosen Raw converter , as you , the editor , does choose the settings in the raw converter i.e. WB , color profile , picture style whatever you want to call it.
To me the Iso has got nothing to do with the " WB being OFF " .... and actually 3200 is not even highish , well for me :w3. For others maybe already a nightmare ...:w3.

My WF does simply include one important step in the beginning , look for a known neutral color in your file and use the eyedropper to neutralize that area .... once done , you can play with colors ( globally or locally ) to your taste . Go warmer , cooler or change the tint accordingly . You can color grade the different tonal ranges differently ... like warm lights and cool shadows , depending on your taste . All tools are there ... even in raw converters like LR / ACR or C1 .

Cheers Andreas

[Sidharth Kodikal]

Played around with neturalizing and color grading.
Wow! Makes life soooo much easier.

I'm finally starting to get comfortable with the output I'm generating.
Processed this one in less than 2 minutes on the MBP, but in terms of PP liking it more than any output I posted recently.

Thanks Andreas, Jon, and Steve for nudging me on the right track. Much appreciated!

[Andreas Liedmann]

hi Sid ..
I took a quick forward route with the OP, in 95 % of my edits I never make a lot of variants ... unlike other folks here . so I can get less puzzled on the route .
my rp might be not perfect , I have to work on a old mbp which is not ideal ... but it does work for the most part . I was even able t0 install Sonoma and latest PS Beta on that old machine .
but I do just make maybe an rp , I do not edit my own images on that machine . too slow for the large raw files .

but here you go with your image , used two layers in ps to get to the point ... just color based stuff .

hope you like it ..

cheer Andreas

[Sidharth Kodikal]

Thanks for the RP, Andreas. Looks better than OP, but the overall scene looks a tad too green for my taste.
But it gives me the direction I need to go in, so thanks for that.

[Andreas Liedmann]

No problem Sid ... color is subjective .
And it is not THE DIRECTION you need to go ... it is just one direction . Keep the image as neutral as possible in the beginning of the process .... than create the colors you wish to see , that is the key

[Steve Kaluski]

Sid to me the light was coming over your right shoulder????

The OP is a bit dark and leaning towards being too red in warmth/WB and masking any light. Colours then start to look muddy and perhaps less 'bright/vibrant' as they should IMHO. Brightening up the scene, getting colours cleaner is perhaps your starting point. Every change you make has a 'cause & effect' therefore at your stage my advice just keep it simple as I think you are adding things (adjustments) that may be muddying the waters and the image is getting away from the original capture?

Something else to add into the mix.

Steve

[Sidharth Kodikal]

Thanks for the RP Steve.
I believe the original was exposed correctly; as far as I could without blowing those yellow cheeks and eyebrows, and the sun was at my back.
I probably darkened it a tad much when correcting the highlights.
Can send over the RAW file if you'd like.

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Sid, no advantage here for the raw, you know perhaps where you made a wrong term.

As I said, at this moment don’t over think the PP, keep it simple and by that book, get the ‘Basics’ right the rest is personal taste.