Common Raven

Hi All,

This image was taken at Bryce Canyon National Park Utah. I visited it last week to watch sunrise Photograph landscapes and do some hiking. I did bring my 300mm just in case I see any birds and i was a good choice.

I saw lots of grosbeaks, Raven and white breasted nuthatch etc. I got a chance to take this image on the first day.

A pretty common bird and the subject was in shade.


Let me know your thoughts and comments.

Nikon D500, 300mm f/4 +1.4x TCIII
ISO 800, f/5.6, 1/800 sec
Manual Mode, 1/2/3 EV

Thanks for watching

Thanks
Krishna

Hi Krishna. I really like the pose you captured here and the open bill adds to the image. It would have been good to see more detail in the blacks, but I understand the image being in the shade, its not easy. The perch looks good, as is the BG colours which show the bird well. I really like the feathers on the neck of the bird.

Will

Quote:

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Originally Posted by William Dickson

Hi Krishna. I really like the pose you captured here and the open bill adds to the image. It would have been good to see more detail in the blacks, but I understand the image being in the shade, its not easy. The perch looks good, as is the BG colours which show the bird well. I really like the feathers on the neck of the bird.

Will

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Thank you for the comments

The POV plays to your advantage here because it shows the neck feathers very nicely.
The light conditions were challenging and i think you did well.
Gail

Agree with the above comments and think you've done well given the shade. I think a sliver more room to the right would help as well. I like the look at the eye you've gotten here. TFS

A black bird in the shade is certainly a challenging subject and I think you've done well in the circumstances, Krishna. I think the handling of the tone has brought out nice detail on the bird, including the hackles. A touch more contrast there would have been beneficial though, I feel. The open bill lifts this shot. As for framing and composition, I think a little more on top and to the right would improve this. Thanks for sharing.

Thank you for the comments Glenn. I do have some other images of the same birds which were better composed ( as per my opinion) which I will posting soon.

I do like to know if my post processing was good. I will post the details about my post processing for the same to have a better understanding.

Below are the snapshots from my post processing.

Do let me know if you see anything wrong.

I do feel that reducing exposure slider was wrong choice. This is my first time processing a completely black bird and I did not want to make it grey :-)

First was straight out of Camera
Second - Lightroom Adjustments
Third - Histogram after Lightroom changes
Fourth - Photoshop

Hi Krisha, I'm no expert here - just going off how your final result looked. Having said that, I think it would have been better to keep the exposure up on the bird and lower it later as necessary with selective lighting adjustments on the bird (to lighten it) and the sky (to bring some colour and tone back there). It looks like (and I'm not entirely sure here) that you have done the opposite and tried to preserve the sky first then tried to lift the bird later. You are right to want to keep the bird looking 'black' rather than grey. Once you have the tone of the bird roughly right, you should be able to boost the contrast across the plumage on just the bird using a curves adjustment. I don't use lightroom so can't be confident about following what you did in your final screenshot. Others more expert in Lightroom may be able to comment.

Thank you for the comments. I agree will reprocess the image

Re processed the image.

I like this one a little bit better.