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Kaustubh Deshpande
03-19-2010, 03:56 PM
http://gallery.photo.net/photo/10815240-lg.jpg

40D. 400f5.6 at f/7.1. iso 320. 1/4000s. fill flash.

There was some cloud shade on the water but sun was shining brilliantly on the pelican. Sunlight little too steep to my liking. Need to get this one early morning.

Thx for looking and critique-ing.
stuart wanuck
03-19-2010, 04:15 PM
lovely pose great whites!
Keith Carver
03-19-2010, 05:46 PM
Great eye contact here, Kaustubh. Fill flash worked well, nice range of whites, works well with blue BG. A little up-tweak of the contrast might help.
David Thomasson
03-19-2010, 06:59 PM
Nice. If you set black point, it'll pull out the darker hues and details a little more.

http://img444.imageshack.us/img444/3130/pelican2.jpg
Manjesh Lingamurthy
03-19-2010, 08:23 PM
Hi Kaustubh

Beautiful detail in the whites and the bill. Any optimisation in photoshop should be to tune the photo to try to show how you saw it when you took the picture. The changes applied by David above, sure brings more details in the whites. Here is my question to Kaustubh. Which image of the two matches what you saw?

Manjesh
Paul Lagasi
03-19-2010, 08:42 PM
Nice portrait Kaustabh..like all the details that show on this bird, feathers on neck raised, background...well done
Kaustubh Deshpande
03-19-2010, 09:03 PM
David, thx for taking the time. I will do some contrast work on it. Colors wise, I'll probably not make it that blue. Unfortunately, the lake I shoot these in is not very blue....esp. so with cloud cover. But thx for pointing me in a direction to go.
David Thomasson
03-19-2010, 09:23 PM
David, thx for taking the time. I will do some contrast work on it. Colors wise, I'll probably not make it that blue. Unfortunately, the lake I shoot these in is not very blue....esp. so with cloud cover. But thx for pointing me in a direction to go.

Take a look at the histogram. The shadow end has some conspicuous blank areas, which accounts for the slightly
foggy look overall. If you pull that end of the curve in (in each of the three channels), the contrast will increase
and the colors will become richer. Steeper curve = higher contrast. (FYI, I didn't enhance the blue specificially;
I just set the black point.)

http://img62.imageshack.us/img62/7469/histoj.jpg
Arthur Morris
03-19-2010, 10:14 PM
Love the sharpness and the pose and would prefer something between the two. Thanks as always to David for his help.
Stu Bowie
03-20-2010, 03:29 AM
Hi Kaustubh, good control on the whites, and I like the pose. Good sharp detail on the eye and bill, and I would just up the contrast on the water BG.
Wynand van Wyk
03-20-2010, 08:17 AM
Super portrait captured!! Great pose and bg! Ditto sir Arthur.
Dumay de Boulle
03-20-2010, 08:43 AM
Super sharp and excellent exposure. Nicely done
Kaustubh Deshpande
03-20-2010, 09:03 AM
Thx everyone.

David, thx for the explanation. I'll go back to the raw file and do a few curves adjustments.

Manjesh, The real scene was not that contrasty but I dont mind doing a little curves work to make the photo look more appealing than reality. In dont like to go too overboard( usually dont)...but little adjustments here and there, I do. Thx for your kind words.