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Mike Boyce
01-18-2008, 05:14 PM
:)Greetings all – this is my first critique.

I captured this image over the holidays while visiting SE Arizona. The Cardinal is on a barrel cactus. The yellow in the image is the fruit of the cactus which the bird had been eating. I removed the fruit debris from the birds beak, some distracting light areas in the background, and a weird black spot on the Cardinal’s tuft. This was quite challenging, as I don’t have Photoshop, and instead have been using an old version (v2.0) of ACD FotoCanvas. Until I recently spoke with a few photographer friends, I never realized why there is so much difference in price between the two pieces of software. Photoshop is now sure to be my next software purchase!

Nikon D200, 200-400 F4 VR lens with NikonTC-1.7E II tele extender (550mm), 1/350s at F8 (lens actually wide open at F4 – should have been listed as F6.8 in metadata with 1.5 stop added for the extender!?) hand held, ISO 250, 10:30am.

Self Critique::o

While this is my best Cardinal photo ever, I am trying to be more artistic in my photo approach and less photojournalistic. This image doesn’t quite meet my desires. Perhaps it should have been framed vertically? And it would have been much nicer with less harsh light… like the sweet light shortly after sunrise.

While looking at the metadata, I noticed that I have been photographing with my D200 set with sharpness set to "hard" and saturation set to "high". I have had difficulty obtaining good detail in both my reds and yellows, and this image is no exception. Can any of you comment on this? What should it be set to, and where and how should I saturate to get a Velvia type saturation look? Would a polarizer be a better way to accomplish this? And finally, would most of you agree that I should quit photographing strictly in jpeg format?

Sorry to be so wordy, but this is the learning forum!

P.S. > The background really turned nasty (as you can see) when i reduced the size of the photo and compressed it with jpeg this time to get below the 146.5Kb size limit. The actual full size image has a smooth background... I suspect that had done previous edits in Tiff (or RAW?) doing this final conversion would have looked much better?

Mike

Learning to do by doing!

Peter Hawrylyshyn
01-18-2008, 05:55 PM
Mike -
Welcome aboard - a very nice 1st post.
I think you've already answerd some of your concerns:
- yes give up JPEG and use RAW
-once you have Photoshop, it's generally a better principle to do editing of the image in PS on not in the camera.
- in PS , if you use the proper steps , your image shouldn't degrade when posting to the web ( several other posts describe how this can be done), especially if you use a mask layer and USM only the bird

IMHO i would have gone for more of a vertical crop. I find the cactus on the left (mostly brown) detracts from the bird and doesn't add to the composition. I might have added a bit at the top and cropped a bit off the right.

Great 1st effort and keep them coming

Howard Burkert
01-18-2008, 08:55 PM
Mike, I agree this would have been a nice vertical image.As far as light, as long as the sun is on your back, I have no problem photographing birds. However I feel that some fill flash should be used to lessen any shadow areas. Nice lens you have, sharp as a tack!! Photoshop will have a learning curve, but the time spent will pay off !! Nice first post..
Best,Howard.

D.J. McNeil
01-19-2008, 09:21 AM
As I told you, before Mike, This photo would have been great as a vericel crop, the problem with that, is that you lose the cool cactus, and the fruit... I bet you could still get it all in there though. Even as a horizontal image, it puts mine all to shame!
See you at Baker,
DJ

Tom Callahan
01-19-2008, 01:31 PM
This is a beautiful Cardinal. Being from AZ I knew exactly what this was. I think your BG is great. If the bird was on top of the cactus and vertical perhaps that would have been better?, but who gets those choices! I wish someone would answer your question in more detail about the settings in the camera as I wonder the same things. He does appear oversaturated to the loss of detail in the feathers. Are you thinking that is because of the in camera settings? Does the post photo program you use have a saturation option?

Howard Burkert
01-19-2008, 04:12 PM
Mike,Not being a D200 user, I can't suggest the settings for your sharpening in the camera. I can tell you I use medium high with my D2Xs cameras. And as stated some fill flash will be your answer to the lighting . Yes, you should be shooting in raw as you will have complete control of any camera settings. I use NX, you can change anything you want except the !SO. Awesome program! Digital Magic!!
Best, Howard.

Peter Hawrylyshyn
01-19-2008, 06:02 PM
Howard/Mike -
Not being a Nikon user, can't comment specifically about D200
I've always used RAW format with a Canon (20D, 30D, now 1D3) - i've never used in camera sharpening, saturation, ... I've always prefered to do it in PS where you have better control

Howard Burkert
01-19-2008, 06:31 PM
Peter, I agree to sharpening in PS. However I set medium high on the camera so I can see on the LCD panel if I do have the sharpness desired, then in NX I switch it to normal. Just my work habit and seems to work very well for me! Normal sharpening on a D2Xs is soft on the LCD panel.
Best,Howard.

Liz Stanley
01-25-2008, 10:30 AM
Mike - I think this is a very interesting photo. Usually cardinals aren't seen in such colorful environments, at least not in my area of the country. To my eye, it seems very saturated, almost too much color. I don't know if that's the result of post processing, or the light at that time of day, or just me. You mentioned that you have a hard time getting details in the reds and yellows. I have found it very easy to overexpose yellows myself (for example, on a goldfinch.) The best solution I can think of for that is to shoot earlier/later in the day when the light isn't so direct (as you mention), or possibly on a bright cloudy day, which will diffuse the light somewhat. I also think a vertical crop would be nice, since you could still get a sense of the cactus but not so much that it takes away from the bird.