Think Spring!

[Ed Schneider]

I shot this Henslow's Sparrow back on 19 May, 2009, here in Nashville ,TN.
I know, a shame about the twig crossing the bird's tail.... anyway to remedy this?

D300, 500f/4 (nonVR)

1/1250th
f/5.6
ISO 100
-1 EV

[Jean Chang]

Hi Ed,

I didn't have time at the moment to do a perfect job, but if you paint the right colors back in, it looks like the offending twig is now behind the bird. Is this what you mean? By the way, it's a fabulous shot! I wish I could get something this good.

http://jeanchang.smugmug.com/photos/765005407_N3KtC-XL.jpg

[Randy Stout]

Ed:

Your bird is sharp, very nicely positioned, well exposed.

To my eye, there is a marked yellow/green (mustard?) color cast to the image. I tried Robert O'toole's average color blur tech., and it did look better to me.

I do agree with working on the OOF foliage in front of the tail. It isn't particularly distracting, but worth a look.

Jean's repost certainly reduced its impact.

Randy

[Axel Hildebrandt]

I like the angle, eye contact, sharpness and BG. The repost looks good regarding the OOF grass but on my monitor the bird is oversharpened. The image could go a bit brighter for my taste.

[John Chardine]

Ed:

Your bird is sharp, very nicely positioned, well exposed.

To my eye, there is a marked yellow/green (mustard?) color cast to the image. I tried Robert O'toole's average color blur tech., and it did look better to me.

I do agree with working on the OOF foliage in front of the tail. It isn't particularly distracting, but worth a look.

Jean's repost certainly reduced its impact.

Randy

I don't know that technique Randy. Is it on APTATS?

[Randy Stout]

John:

APATS II has it. Very fast, great starting point for color correction, and the effect is easily adjusted to taste.
It certainly doesn't work on every image, but I still find it an excellent tech.

I am pretty sure Artie has detailed in some of his posts on BPN as well.

Randy

[Randy Stout]

Here is an example of Robert's tech. I did the standard settings, and then adjusted the opacity of the effect to about 48%. I don't know this bird well enough to be certain about its true colors, but this looks more accurate to me than the original color.

[Bill Dix]

Great pose and perch, and good detail. I've never seen a Henslow's, but Randy's repost sure looks a lot more like the images in my bird books.

[Ed Schneider]

Great pose and perch, and good detail. I've never seen a Henslow's, but Randy's repost sure looks a lot more like the images in my bird books.

I agree the original has that golden mustardy colorcast, but this was taken @ sunset (sorry, failed to mention this). What is the concensus in this situation? I'm obviously new to bird photography, but thought in general
the "magic hour" was a desired effect. I admit my light angle was a hair off (shadow on the breast). I don't dislike the your repost Randy, but it does seem to sterilize the evening glow a little, and there seems to also be a little bluish colorcast going on with the bird. Thanks for all the input, guys, looking forward to your responses:)

Ed

[Randy Stout]

Ed;

You get to be the final arbiter of your image. Yes, the golden light is often popular, but in this case it wasn't obvious to me that this was the case, as opposed to WB issues.

I agree that there is a bit of blue in my repost. It would be a 20 second job to adjust to taste. I posted it mainly because John asked about the tech.

Randy

[Ed Schneider]

Quote from Jean:
"I didn't have time at the moment to do a perfect job, but if you paint the right colors back in, it looks like the offending twig is now behind the bird. Is this what you mean? By the way, it's a fabulous shot! I wish I could get something this good" (I couldn't properly "quote" without the image included)

Thanks so much Jean, for taking the time to do this! When you say "paint", are you taking a color sample from the image and "cloning"? I only have Elements6 and I'm still finding my way around (obvious novice here!).

BTW, anyone who would like to photograph this bird should come to Bell's Bend Park in Nashville in the spring:)

Ed

[Ed Schneider]

Ed;

You get to be the final arbiter of your image. Yes, the golden light is often popular, but in this case it wasn't obvious to me that this was the case, as opposed to WB issues.

I agree that there is a bit of blue in my repost. It would be a 20 second job to adjust to taste. I posted it mainly because John asked about the tech.

Randy

Thanks, Randy. I'm guessing somewhere between the original and your repost would make everyone happy:D

Ed

[Ed Schneider]

Here I adjusted the saturation to -3 on the slider. Probably not the recommended method here, but it seemed to bring the green cast back to a more natural look, while keeping the sunset glow. I also started to use a brush tool to paint over the branch across the tail..... WOW that's difficult:eek:

Ed

[Jean Chang]

Quote from Jean:

Thanks so much Jean, for taking the time to do this! When you say "paint", are you taking a color sample from the image and "cloning"? I only have Elements6 and I'm still finding my way around (obvious novice here!).

BTW, anyone who would like to photograph this bird should come to Bell's Bend Park in Nashville in the spring:)

Ed

Hi Ed,

It zoomed in to about 600% (I use PS CS4, but you can do the same thing with Elements), then went back and forth taking a sample with the eyedropper tool of the color I wanted, then using the brush tool painted pixel by pixel over the green. It is tedious, but doesn't take that long. It's kind of fun in a way.

I tried using C.S. Springer's "grey card" action. It turned the color cast from yellow to magenta, and I went into color balance to shift it. Not sure if I wrecked it, though!

Here's the result with the branch "painted over".

I tried brightening a little and in Photoshop it looked good, but here on the site it looks too bright. Aaarghh... Oh well...

http://www.jeanachang.com/photos/765228107_odKQ5-XL.jpg

[Ed Schneider]

Thanks again, Jen. The color rendition here is very close to "real", but the bird is a little oversharpened, and yes a little too bright:)

Thanks for the tutorial on the painting, you did a great job there. I will have to try my hand at this, just not patient enough @ the moment:D


SOOOOOO much to learn.....thanks everyone!!!

Ed

[Jean Chang]

Hi Ed,

>>but the bird is a little oversharpened, and yes a little too bright<<

I agree, it does look oversharpened. The weird thing is that I didn't do any sharpening at all. I just brightened it (way too much). I guess brightening it up made it also look sharper for some reason.

Yeah, there's lots to learn, but ain't it fun?

Jean

[Matthew Studebaker]

This is one of my favorites of yours Ed. Excellent pose, perch, background, light. fantastic detail, composition. Outstanding.

[Ed Schneider]

Thanks, Matthew - that means a lot coming from you. What are your thoughts regarding the colorcast in the initial post if you don't mind me asking?