Bird in Environment

EOS R EF 400 DO 2xtcII f10 1/320 ISO 3200 servo AF

I know this is busy, but I loved it as bird in environment. The pond apple leaves frame this beauty in early morning shade. I even like the intruding marsh grass as it helps to define the place (this tree was in the water). What do you think? And, as always thanks for the learning. I wonder if everyone knows just how spoiled we are. Just 10 years ago, I approached 1600 with trepidation. I am gob-stopped by the ISO performance at 3200. I know some of your rigs do even better.

Hi David, sorry, I appreciate a habitat included in a composition as it has a powerful contribution, however, this environment was not compositionally "friendly" as there are dried branches intersecting the heron ala "shish-ka-bob". Also, the leaves don't have a pleasing "frame" and are also intersected by the same dried sticks. The white BG spots really draw my eye as well. The bird doesn't present an appealing HA and the whites are not displaying detail. Lastly, color balance is off, frame is blue. TFS

No reason to be sorry. Ann. Thanks for the inputs.

Hi David,
I agree with Ann's critique and also note that the feet are too close to the bottom of the frame.
Always leave some breathing room for the feet when framing your image.
Gail

Yes to more room below and fixing the color. Like the pose on the bird.

I agree with Ann, there is just too much distraction to be a really effective shot. Environment/habitat shots are really hard, and the environment overpowers the bird in this instance.

Hi David, you have a lot of good feedback already which I'm not going to repeat, but just watch your SS. I might have dropped the DoF a fraction and so you gained a bit more SS. These days with modern camera bodies ISO is less of an issue, especially if the image is well exposed and you adopt ETTR (Expose to the right), reply on your Histogram and not the LCD. Am I right in thinking that you can only shoot JPEG and not RAW with this body?

I have seen some amazing shots the other day from a very good friend of mine who has been in the Pantanal with this body and will be interested to see more when we hook up at the end of next month.

No saying this is perfect in any shape or form, but it may help in a direction to perhaps look at for the image.

TFS
Steve

As I am partially color blind sometimes I miss the color cast (especially when I slightly boost saturation). I'm sure the complete shade and slight saturation boost caused the cast. As practice, I tried to warm this up using a filter. Did it work? As always, thanks to all for learnings.

Quote:

---

As I am partially color blind sometimes I miss the color cast

---

David, if you use PS to process your images, then they have a thread/advice for folk like yourself which can hopefully resolve things.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Steve Kaluski

David, if you use PS to process your images, then they have a thread/advice for folk like yourself which can hopefully resolve things.

---

Who is they? Can you share a link?

with love, arite

Quote:

---

Who is they?

---

Artie - Forums Adobe Community


Artie, about 5 years ago a guy in Widlife kept posting images that were similar to this thread (he then explained he was colour blind, hence the colours of the image) and I then found some links that help in the set-up of PS (Photoshop), however with numerous updates I can't find the links in the adobe community, but found this:

• Convert the document to RGB color mode, which provides the most accurate soft proofs for color blindness.
• To simultaneously view the original document and a soft proof, choose Window > New Window and arrange the windows for a side-by-side view (optional).
• Choose View > Proof Setup > Color Blindness, and then choose either Protanopia-type or Deuteranopia-type. (To comply with CUD, check your document in both views.)

You can also print the proof in Photoshop. For more information, search for “Print a hard proof” in Photoshop Help.

If objects are difficult to distinguish in color-blind proofs, adjust the design by doing any of the following:

• Change color brightness or hue:
  
  • Pure red tends to appear dark and muddy; orange-red is easier to recognize.
  • Bluish green is less confusing than yellowish green.
  • Gray may be confused with magenta, pale pink, pale green, or emerald green.
  • Avoid the following combinations whenever possible: red and green; yellow and bright green; light blue and pink; dark blue and violet.
  
  
• Apply different patterns or shapes.
• Add large white, black, or dark-colored borders on color boundaries.
• Use different font families or styles.

This may also help:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suAgMCcjZ8I

Thanks a stack Steve!

with love, artie

Hi David,

Your repost is only slightly better but the colors are still funky. For my repost I desaturated the BLUE channel about 35 points and worked on some of the branches that intersected with the bird. Then sharpened the face and neck with a contrast mask after running my NIK 40-40 filter on the face and neck. Then some BKGR smoothing with Gaussian Blur. As the IQ was somewhat suspect -- there was artifacting along the edges of the bird, I could have done much better starting with either the RAW or the TIFF. IAC, it is a lot of work :(

with love, artie

Not sure if it helps David or not Artie, but certainly for 90% plus of folk who use PS they would not know that this option was available and that by simply changing things like Proof Setup it could make all the difference if you had a colour issue. :S3:

I think the video clip could be the 'game changer', however it would be nice if it could be a 'recipe/action' that David could just deploy rather than creating for each image.

Cheers
Steve

Just saw the latter part of the comments in my email. So, Thanks so much Steve and Artie for the detailed help.
Peace,
David