California Brown Pelican

Something a little different than the usual, here is a California brown pelican in its breeding plumage (not that it matters here). Focus point was made on the right foot. For some reasons, I enjoy the composition. I would like to know what you think about this. This photo is composed in camera, that is, the pelican's head is chopped off in the camera. Cropping was made to remove the lower portion of the frame and make it into 16:10 aspect ratio. Post-processing in Lightroom with locale exposure adjustments made to frame the feet better.

Attachment 159016
500mm, f/6.3, 1/320, ISO 2000

I like it a lot. Especially the mood. I would like to see a repost with the curve pulled up a bit for lighter overall. a

Agree with above. I like dark moody but mood isn't what you are after here so the image needs to be brighter. Well done.

Artie and Adrian,

Thanks so much for the comments. After another look at the image, your assessments on the darker tone are right. Thanks for the kind words on the composition. Here is a revision after bringing up that curve.

Attachment 159030

Adhika, I like the OP. Unusual and unique. His feet look like a patinated copper sculpture. Well done!

The OP was a bit underexposed as pointed out by Artie. Repost is better. I think this image has more potential if you crop it tighter to eliminate parts of the far wing/ I would also consider cleaning up the perch a little bit

Even though the OP is underexposed overall, I think it brings out the best in the feet which was my original intention. But I do agree that it might create unnecessary mood (which could be detracting).

Arash, can you elaborate a little more about 'cleaning up the perch' part?

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Originally Posted by Adhika Lie

Even though the OP is underexposed overall, I think it brings out the best in the feet which was my original intention. But I do agree that it might create unnecessary mood (which could be detracting).

Arash, can you elaborate a little more about 'cleaning up the perch' part?

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it means cleaning i.e. cloning the droppings

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Adhika Lie

Even though the OP is underexposed overall, I think it brings out the best in the feet which was my original intention. But I do agree that it might create unnecessary mood (which could be detracting).

Arash, can you elaborate a little more about 'cleaning up the perch' part?

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Adhika,

First off, I love the " patinated copper sculpture" comment by Glennie.

Second, while I love the "dark" mood, the image as originally presented was simply too dark. The repost was good.

Third, and this is major, if you want to produce the highest quality files with the most information, you need to expose to the right so that the highlight data is well into the right-mot histogram box, aka ETTR (expose to the right). When properly captured this image should have looked a bit washed out on the rear LCD. Then, you can darken it for mood or as needed in Photoshop.

Fourth: I cleaned up pretty much all of the whitewash on the rocks as Arash suggested. I used all of my usual clean-up tools primarily the Spot Healing Brush and the Patch Tool. They both blend rather than clone... In addition I did use the Clone Stamp a bit.

Fifth: I worked a bit to down down the brighter whitish area below the tail.

Sixth: everything in 4 and 5 above is covered in detail in my https://store.birdsasart.com/shop/item.aspx?itemid=252https://store.birdsasart.com/shop/item.aspx?itemid=252. Along with dozens of other great Photoshop tips.

Seventh: at first I dismissed Arash's suggestion as far as a small crop from the right. But after I gave it some thought, I tried it. And liked it.

Eight: let me know what you think of my repost.

Ninth: May I have your permission to use this image in an educational blog post on my blog at www.BIRDSASART-Blog.com?

Tenth: We look forward to your joining our membership ranks :)

Eleventh: the more I look at the image the more I like it.

Twelfth: was this at La Jolla?

Artie & Arash,

Thanks for the thoughts you gave for this image. I did shoot this with -2/3 EV because I was in the center weighted average metering mode and I often find the camera over-exposing the scene because the center of the frame happened to be in the darker part of the bird. Looking at the histogram, it was only a tad underexpose but it was indeed shot at ISO 2000 which might be a little challenging. To give you an idea, here is a screen capture of the original after import in LR.

Attachment 159156

Artie,

I like the tighter crop. I played with Arash's input yesterday and incorporated a few of your inputs as well. This is what I have come up with. I used the content aware fill to "clean up after these birds' mess" and I think it was very similar to yours. I am a little bothered by the breast here that showed slightly lack of contrast/hazy (not sure why). But the pelican was preening so it could be natural.

I didn't like the white wash close the the pelican's tail as well and I played a little bit with content aware fill to make that happen.

What do you think?


Attachment 159157

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Originally Posted by Arthur Morris

Adhika,

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Ninth: May I have your permission to use this image in an educational blog post on my blog at www.BIRDSASART-Blog.com?

Tenth: We look forward to your joining our membership ranks :)

Eleventh: the more I look at the image the more I like it.

Twelfth: was this at La Jolla?

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Go ahead and use it at the blog. I have benefited reading your blogs in the past six months I started delving into bird photography and I hope many others would learn from this exchanges as well. I really appreciate your kind words. Hearing that you like the image is an honor, sir. I attended your talk at the NAT and I actually shot this the day after at the cove. :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Adhika Lie

Artie & Arash,

Thanks for the thoughts you gave for this image. I did shoot this with -2/3 EV because I was in the center weighted average metering mode and I often find the camera over-exposing the scene because the center of the frame happened to be in the darker part of the bird. Looking at the histogram, it was only a tad underexpose but it was indeed shot at ISO 2000 which might be a little challenging. To give you an idea, here is a screen capture of the original after import in LR.

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Howdy Adhika, I don't know from LR but it is good that the image looks brighter in the LR screen cap than when it was originally presented. The histogram looks OK. Do know that on your Flickr site most of the stuff as presented is way too dark :) a

Hi Again, The repost in Pane 11 looks great, including the breast. a