Los Colores

[Ian Cassell]

Canon 7D
Canon 100mm f/2.8 Macro
1/100 sec @ f/20 ISO 200
Canon 430 EX

Crop and Sharpening in CS5 NR in Noiseware Pro

[Alfred Forns]

Hi Ian

I like the composition, selecting parts of birds works well !! Might have a little less of the blue !

From the tech side first thing you notice is the flash, would probably not use or turn way down, lots of reflection coming form the bird !! Your best light is natural soft or artificially diffused !! Aperture wise you don't need to stop down all that much and end up with such a low shutter speed, there is not that much depth to covert !!

PS wise would desatureate a bit, colors look electric !! Would crop some from the top to avoid the darker area, just go tighter !!!

[Ian Cassell]

Thanks, Alfred. I agree that I could have cranked it back some more (the bird was standing in deep shadows and needed some artificial light). And, of course, I forgot to bring my diffuser with me (always happens). I have a few more from this series to fiddle with.

I wrestled with the crop. I think you're right about too much of the blue.

How about a bit more vertical like this? (desaturated a bit too)

[Jerry van Dijk]

Hi Ian, I like your composition with three different triangles. In the original, they are about even size, which I like. I think you desaturated a little too much in your repost, the blues do not look natural. Do you use a histogram to tweak your colors? I also notice a lot of noise, which is odd since you used NR. Is this a large crop?

[Alfred Forns]

Hi Ian I think you overdid the saturation, just select the blue channel and back down a few points Original comp is fine would just like to see a little less blue or maybe it was so prominent (loud) it made me wish to see a little less !!!

[Fabs Forns]

Another vote for the original composition, except for the very top, where the flash is very visible. Did this have any movement by the bird or you hands? I think the feathers could show more detail.

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Ian,
I'm with Fabs on this one.....a little off the top where the flash is the most noticable would strngthen the entire comp. At f20 I would suspect this should be sharper/more detailed. Was this tripod mounted or HH?

[Anita Bower]

I like the strong colors--it is what attracted me in the first place. Also like the many patterns. You might crop a bit off the top. Thanks for sharing.

[Julie Kenward]

I also wondered why it didn't feel as sharp as it should at f20. Did you handhold or were you on a tripod?

[Ian Cassell]

Thanks, folks. This was handheld.