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Captured on Enderby Island (NZ) Dec 25 2016.
Canon 1DXII, 400 2.8, handheld, maybe knee-pod.
f 5.6, 1/1250, ISO 1000. Minor adjustments in Lightroom.
I'll guess it will be recommended to remove the vegetation just behind the bird, but I don't normally do that... but joining the forum to learn.
Greg
Greg, nice to see a bird from this part of the world (I'm in Australia). Yes, that stem behind the bird is distracting. One option is to play with the tone/brightness so it is less obvious (selectively on that element of the image) or to soften it a little. Otherwise, this looks very good to me. If anything, the contrast on the bird might be a little high: the white feathers under the eye are lacking detail and might benefit from a selective tonal adjustment and converse for the black band below this. Is there a hint of catchlight on the eye? If so, it might be worth lightening/reduce shadows on that a little to bring it out some more. Composition works for me and the environment around the bird is great.
Glenn, thanks for the comments and suggestions. I'll look at what you suggest to see if I can get a better result. Realistically I need to work a lot more on my post-processing, part of the reason for joining the forum to get a focus on such techniques.
Despite living in the US I am actually Australian, been out of Oz about 20 years, so I enjoy seeing your posts on birds more familiar to me. I'll now be able to comment, at least if I have something useful to day!
Greg
Nice shot Greg and good to see another 400/2.8 in use. I would remove the twig sticking out from the back and run some noise reduction on the background. If you don't have it Neat Image is terrific for noise reduction.
Thanks Colin. I did recently get Neat Image, but need to adjust my workflow to use PS routinely rather than LR. I'll work on the image based on the critique.
Love the 400/2.8! I photograph wildlife in general, not just birds, and find the lens is almost always the one to use.
Greg
Thanks for the advice Glenn and Colin. I moved out some of the twigs in LR. I think it is fairly successful for the one coming out of the back of the bird, OK for what was in front of the legs. I plan to move my workflow to PS which should give me better control of these operations. I'll wait on the NR until I update the workflow, but this gives me motivation.
Greg
Greg, removing the twigs has helped although I can see where you have done so under the bird: are you aware of the Healing Brush tool in photoshop? It's a good choice for situations like this. I can't see any changes to the lighting on the bird but still think this is will improve the image.
Glenn, I haven't taken this into photoshop yet, only lightroom, which I don't think has the healing brush. I have some re-organisation to do on my workflow to bring photoshop into play, and some tutorials to study, I may get to it this weekend when I have more time, but wanted to try something quick to acknowledge the critique. I will also get to the lighting - I had taken down the whites and highlights a bit, but I see what you point out.
Greg
