Nobody's Perfect

[Bill Dix]

I liked the way the angled light caught this Northern Cardinal's head turn, against the dark green of the woods behind. Unfortunately, he didn't wear his finest cardinal suit for his portrait.

D90 | 80-400 VR @ 370mm | ISO 400 | 1/800s @ f/5.6 | -1.0 EV

[Mital Patel]

what a great great bottle green bg you have got here bill. i am stunned with such a brilliant combination of bird's color and bg.

superb capture.


Sorry bill bellow is for my personal learning experience ...

I've a question for tech experts. I am seeing some hairline of chromatic fringe on entire upper edge of branch. (magenta thin line) or a little cast of magenta on the branch.
how can we fix such thing in PS ?

[Bill Dix]

Thanks for your comments Mital. I also see the magenta. I'll be interested in hearing what the experts have to say.

[Stu Bowie]

Superb reds here Bill, and I dont find his plumage too tatty. You couldnt have captured the two most opposite colours in this - the red against the forest BG.

[Roger Clark]

Bill,

Nice image and nice angle of the light (goof phase angle), nice head angle too and sharp focus.

Regarding the color fringing. I'll speak generally here for multiple conditions.

If the color fringe is to one side, it is an easy fix. In the case of magenta (which is red + blue), select the other channel (green) in photoshop. Keep the other channels turned on so you see the colors, then nudge the green channel so it moves relative to the other channels and brings the colors come into alignment.

If the problem appears on all sides, the case common with chromatic aberration, where the images in each color are different sizes, it is best handled in the raw converter. In ACR click through the advanced tabs to find the color fringing correction. Zoom the image to 100%, then move the view to each corner and adjust the sliders to minimize/eliminate the color fringing. This tool changes the size of each channel to bring them into alignment, and in my experience works very well.

Roger

[Arthur Morris]

Nicely designed with a nice perch and a nice BKGR. The face could stand a bit more sharpening.

Roger. Good to see you back.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Nice image Bill. You are right, this is not its best suit! I do wish it would have kept its' tail lowered. Did you touch-up the eye? If so, I have a comment / suggestion for you:S3:.

I haven't experienced fringing much in my images, but I've found that Lightroom (which is essentially ACR for the raw conversion part) has a good fringing correction tool as by Roger's post.

[gail bisson]

Great head turn and BG. Good tips on this thread,
Gail

[Bill Dix]

Thanks to all for the comments. Daniel, although I often do brighten the eye a bit, I did not do so on this image, nor did I use flash here. The only brightening is the result of USM. I don't understand the split catchlight, but it's like that in the RAW image. I'm guessing it has something to do with the sun angle.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Bill, it wasn't the nice catchlight that had caught my eye, but the solid uniform colour of the brown iris. But since it was like that in camera, then never mind:c3:

[Joe Senzatimore]

Color co-ordination at it's best. The subect just pops. Well done Bill.:cheers:

[Aidan Briggs]

Nice BG, and pose here Bill. Exposure looks good too. If you want to fix the line in PS, I would select the area with a quick mask and reduce the saturation in the magenta channel.

[Morkel Erasmus]

These birds are always a treat to see here Bill. Lovely pose and exposure with those vibrant reds. I agree the face could use another round of slight sharpening.
:S3:

[RAM MALLYA]

What a color combination of green BG and lovely Red bird amazing shot

[Sidharth Kodikal]

Excellent colors indeed, Bill. The details look great and I love the eye contact.
I'd probably move him further in the frame to give him room below, just in case he decides to lower his tail :)

[Bill Dix]

Thanks, all.