Reddish egret -- bad pic . . .

[wendell westfall]

D70s 70-200VR 180mm 1/2500 f2.8 ISO500 Handheld shutter priority (25% crop, levels, sharpened)

Even I -- a relative beginner -- can see that this image taken early this morning is not a very good good one. Conditions were poor -- very overcast. But it was a chance at the Reddish, which I believe is one of only two that hang around Bolsa Chica, CA, and is not often seen. So, I gave it a try, taking many and varied exposures of the bird. This one came out best, so you can see I "didn't do good." But, could I have done better? I'd appreciate comments and suggestions as to camera settings and processing that might have made it more presentable.

Wendell

[Alfred Forns]

Hi Wendell Always nice to see Big Red !!!! You did do well Lots of good things going on here Image is sharp got a good exposure reasonable placement in frame

Can make a couple of suggestions You can trade a aperture for shutter speed Maybe would have gone f 4.0 or bit more Shooting from a lower angle would have been better Always gives a special look Will post below and do a couple of enhancements Slightly different crop Don't need that much reflection and will move bird back a tad Will lighten with levels and give an extra usm pass !!! I do like this image a lot !!! btw also did a little work around the eye

[wendell westfall]

Yep, Al, you made it look better; thanks. With your adjustments in mind, I'll work on my other images a bit more. And I do like the crop better, too . . .

[George DeCamp]

Hey Wendell!

Glad you posted this one, Al made it a loat better already! For sure the f2.8 you chose will limit your DOF and actually I am kinda surprised itis as good as it is. Overcast days can make for some stunning images, the light is nice and even and better than that harsh mid day light that is around most of the time unless you choose your hours carefully (early and late for the sweet light). I still like the image and more so how it was redone, you can always spice them up with a few tricks and tips.

Keep em coming!

[LeeOtsubo]

Hi Wendell,
I'm familiar with BC so I tried my hand at your image with a typical sunny SoCal day in mind. I cheated and used one of my reddish photos from BC as a guide!

A vertical crop seemed in order here and I cloned out the little bit of shore in the lower right. I also cloned out the second tail feather on the right side. It looked a bit odd just hanging there.

The biggest change was Levels to brighten the image. I may have gone a bit overboard with the lightening. Finally, I ran it through Neat Image and Focus Magic to tighten up the image a bit.

[wendell westfall]

I'm impressed . . . and I'd like to take back part of my post's title: "bad pic". I had no idea it could look so good. It's on to further study for me. By the way, Lee, though it is not my intention to print this image, I'm curious if after this many corrections it could be printed at an 11X14 or greater size, for example. When I worked with it, the pixel colors seemed not to blend properly -- it seemed grainy or pixelated or something.

[LeeOtsubo]

I'm impressed . . . and I'd like to take back part of my post's title: "bad pic". I had no idea it could look so good. It's on to further study for me. By the way, Lee, though it is not my intention to print this image, I'm curious if after this many corrections it could be printed at an 11X14 or greater size, for example. When I worked with it, the pixel colors seemed not to blend properly -- it seemed grainy or pixelated or something.
Hi Wendell,
A huge part of digital is post-processing (PP). As for printing, if you mean printing the 146KB image in this thread, no, it can't be printed at any reasonable size. In fact, since you indicate this is a 25% crop (25% of the original) you don't have enough pixels left for an 11x14, especially after cropping it another 50% like I've done here. You have about 750KP (6MPx0.25x0.5) left. That's not enough for an 11x14. Bottom line, it's not really the corrections but the number of pixels (resolution). That's why you always want to fill as much of the frame as possible, using all the available pixels.

[wendell westfall]

Hi Lee,
Got it . . . thanks . . .