Mute Swan portrait

[Jan Wegener]

A quite common bird, but one that predestined for portraits :)

Mark IIn + 600 IS full frame
1/500 @ Iso 400 - 1/3
using chest waders

http://www.vogelfotografien.de/Test/mstt.jpg

[Daniel Cadieux]

Wondeful portrait Jan. Of course the splashing water at bill tip takes this a notch above usual Mute Swan portraits. Although you left the water drop on purpose in LLC I would be inclined to move it a bit higher and more directly underneath the bill or to remove it entirely. Excellent techs.

[John Chardine]

Beautifully sharp and very clean image Jan. The light is very nice and the water drops add a lot. Love the bill detail. The only thing I would suggest is a bit more room at the top.

[Manos Papadomanolakis]

the splashing water at bill tip makes the image!!!
great details,exposure too!!!

[Stu Bowie]

Brilliant IQ Jan, and you have used the light to full advantage. Excellent exposure, and apart from the droplets in the mouth, I like the how the head and neck are covered in droplets too. Overall, this is really sharp, and agree a little more room on top will work nicely. Great image.

[Arthur Morris]

I love the splash at the bill tip and the serrations on the lower mandible. There was a big red cast in the OP and the bill was over-exposed because it was over-saturated. I played around with it for a while, almost gave up, but wound up pretty happy with the color work and the Linear Burn here....

[John Chardine]

This must be a "monitor thing" Artie as I see absolutely no red cast in OP and orange of bill looks like nature had intended. Your repost looks greenish on my Dell LCD monitor (at work). Will check my Mac monitor at home later.

Later- I definitely see a warm cast on the OP on my monitor at home. Artie's still looks greenish, although less greenish.

[John Chardine]

I checked the "pure" whites around the margin of the face in LAB colour and they were off in both the OP and the repost. They "should" be 0,0 for the A and B channels. I converted the OP to LAB and adjusted the A, B channels in Curves so that these whites were as close to 0,0 as I could get them. It would be interesting to see how they look in the repost.

[Jan Wegener]

seems like a tricky issue.

On my calibrated Eizo screen my post appears warm and colorful. I don't see a red cast in particular, but it has a slight cast coompared to the third post. I would rather call warmth. I found it a bit tricky to process this image, because the orange and the white were already on the edge. On my monitor I would still stick to my post. Yours Artie, has a slight greenish cast on my screen. John's post has no cast, but looks quite cold on my screen. The white is even whiter than the original swans's white. ;) The image was taken right after sunset, so a certain colorcast/warmth might be acceptable.
Anyways, I really appreciate your support and ideas :)

How do you other guys think about the three versions ?
It seems like this image shows quite big difference from screen to screen.

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Jan,
Nice composition. The water droplets makes this top notch. Your post has a warm colour cast. Artie's a slight green cast. John's repost is the whitest. I won't be able to comment as to which version is the natural. A fantastic image. Congratulations.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[Gal Shon]

WB is a very tricky issue especially with pure white birds,

Your post has a warm colour cast. Artie's a slight green cast. John's repost is the whitest
I agree with that, when we're photographing in the golden hours there's no pure white,
not to the naked eye and not in the camera. If will set the temperature to pure white in every light condition, we'll lose the uniqueness of the different light condition.

I love the OP very much,
The splash, closeness, sharpness, light and BG makes this one stand out.
If anything, I wish for more room top and left.

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

I'd be glad to nail any of the above. :D Jan, this is exceptional. The water droplets put it over the top. Perfect HA! Congrats! :)

[Bryan Hix]

First I'll just say I really like the post anyway you slice it. Great job. I guess I like John's overall the best. In the OP, the saturation especially on the bill is too much and agree that Artie's whites look greenish, but they seem to show more detail. At the end of the day, it's personal preference I guess.

[Harshad Barve]

Outstanding image IMHO ,
TFS

[Rob Drummond]

Exquisite detail - beautiful Jan

cheers
Rob

[Kiran Poonacha]

Beautiful image, the droplets sure is small but makes a bid impact on this..

[Arthur Morris]

When I posted to this I had forgotten that I was working on my uncalibrated for a while back-up laptop.... Your OP looks fine to me now that I have Greg-tag Macbethed this one.

[Jan Wegener]

good to hear :)