Black eyes

[ann shiller]

This image was taken at Ft De Soto, Florida, on the Gulf coast at about 1:00 in the afternoon. It was overcast so I thought that maybe the light would be OK. But as you can see, there is no catch light or reflection in the birds eye. (Willet, I think.) I did not use a flash.

Nikon D90, 70-300 VR @ 300 mm, F8, 1/250, manual exposure, centerweighted metering.

Any suggestions would be appreciated. I also captured least sandpipers, terns and gull, all with black eyes.:(

[Fabs Forns]

The absence of a light source will cause black eye, since the catch light is a reflection of that light source, be it the sun or a flash.
YOu can add one artificially, with the brush tool in white at a very low opacity. I think this image coulees go a bit lighter.

[Randy Stout]

Ann:

This might have been a good place to use your pop up flash with lots of negative compensation dialed in. Just enough to generate a catch light. I prefer the wider natural catchlights, but sometimes you just don't have one available.
Fabs pointed out the post processing option which can save the day.
Sometimes if you really look at high magnification, you can see a glimmer of a natural catchlight that you can augment with the dodge tool on highlight setting.

Randy

[David Thomasson]

If you zoom in really close, you can see a faint reflection of the sky at the top of the eye. Use a small brush 10% opacity, and paint on a blank layer to enhance that a bit.

I think the overcast gave this a coolish hue. I would incline toward warming it up a bit by setting white point, but it's a personal preference.

http://a.imageshack.us/img6/38/blackeyes2.jpg

http://a.imageshack.us/img824/6726/blackeyes.jpg

[Andrew Bunney]

If you have photoshop one quick "fix" that can sometimes bring out much of the life in an eye is to select it with the magic brush and then select Image > Autotone it is very quick to try and I think often produces a natural result. I had a go with your jpeg and I think there may be potential with this technique on the full size image with the full color depth of the original file. It won't produce a catchlight with bling but that would IMHO look unnatural with an image displaying soft tones and little/no shadow.

Another option, if you captured in raw, you could try "developing" a version of your file just for the eye ignoring everything else (to see if any more can be recovered), if successful copy the original onto a layer over the "eye" image and then you can erase the eye of original to reveal, due to the transparency of the layer, the adjusted eye underneath.

[Alfred Forns]

Great re post David ... sweet !!!

Andrew I have not tried that option but will give it a try, so far "any" auto in PS has not given good results !!!

Ann the bird is very large in frame, we do say we like to fill the frame but not to this point !! Tech wise not much need for stopping down and would have more shutter speed Did not see the ISO but assuming it was very low? Metering wise we recommend using the Evaluative which is the newest type. Centere weighted is an old sytem much used with film.... not much use today !!!! Looking forward to the next one !!!

[David Thomasson]

Andrew I have not tried that option but will give it a try, so far "any" auto in PS has not given good results !!!


Auto tone is the same as auto levels. If you're going to use that method, better to open a levels adjustment layer (rather than make a destructive edit on a pixel layer).

[Lance Peters]

Hi Ann - all good advice above - Agre with AL'S points - for me this one is too tight in the frame - would have backed back a bit - or tried to go closer to fill the frame with a tighter crop.
Cant see any reason not to shot this wide open.
Keep em coming :)

[Roger Clark]

Ann the bird is very large in frame, we do say we like to fill the frame but not to this point !!

Alfred,
Would you please expand on this point a bit? It seems to me there is nice space in front and above the bird. The sand is not particularly interesting, so should the image include more space around the bird? What would you have done?

Roger

[Roger Clark]

Auto tone is the same as auto levels. If you're going to use that method, better to open a levels adjustment layer (rather than make a destructive edit on a pixel layer).

David,
One thing I don't like about auto levels is unless you change the defaults, it clips the data. Bring up the levels tool and click on options and set the clip points to zero to prevent clipping.

Roger

[Alfred Forns]

Hi David Thanks for the info .... saves me from trying Imagine it could work for a particular iamge but won't for most !!

Roger the bird feels large in frame, filling too much of it Would like seeing more space all around it particularly up front !!!!!

[VinceRossi]

Can some one please explain DATING while in flash mode. I rently had it come up on my camera and didn't what it was or how to use it.? ALSO while shooting inside with or without the flash I had orange tint to my pics. Is there any resolve for it?

Thanks

[David Thomasson]

David,
One thing I don't like about auto levels is unless you change the defaults, it clips the data. Bring up the levels tool and click on options and set the clip points to zero to prevent clipping.

Roger

Oh, I don't recommend auto levels at all, ever. I was just saying that if you're going to use it, you're better off to do it non-destructively in an adjustment layer. I don't use auto anything when editing.

[ann shiller]

Great job, brought that bird to life. I will try for the same effect.

[ann shiller]

Thanks to all for the great advice. I'll try the flash the next time I get a chance.