Black Grouse display

Hi everyone,

Hope you all are doing fine under these special circumstances.

I have chosen to manage my isolation by spending a lot of time in the nature to the extent that it can be done in a responsible way. I have found a lot of joy in pursuing difficult species together with a friend who is also a photographer. Our latest task involved two extremely tiring trips to a remote lek with Black Grouse. This was only the second time I had seen a leksite and it was a real treat. Getting photos proved difficult though as wind, temperature and attacking birds of prey made the birds very skittish. After a failed first attempt and a disappointing 2 hour walk back in knee deep freezing cold water, we still decided to give it another go. This is a frame from this morning.

It has been long since I had sooo many photos to publish and process. More to come of the Great Grey Owl and a Northern Hawk-owl I recently encountered. As well as oldies from Amazonia that I promised. Either way I chose to publish the shots I feel most interested in to hear feedback as I'm a bit critical of them myself.

All comments welcome!

Canon EOS 5D Mark IV | Canon 500mm f/4.0L IS USM II | ISO 1000 | 1/500s | f/4.5

Super shot, Ivan. Love the open-beak display pose, good head angle, comp, background and habitat. In short, everything about it. The dark tones on the grouse feel very rich as posted. I don't know if lifting the darkest areas just a tiny bit would help, or would lose that nice richness. The red eyebrow is overcooked (255); maybe desat a bit. In any event those are minor nits, for a great shot of a great bird. Worth the ordeal. Looking forward to more.

What a grouse! Very neat looking bird. Love that black/blue and that red. Nice framing and viewpoint. Detail looks quite nice as well.

I am so envious, you have a fine image there. I would be tempted to reduce the contrast a little to bring out some more detail in the darker areas, and I too think there is a little more detail to be had in the wattles.
I wanted to go to photograph the black grouse myself but in UK we are forbidden from unnecessary travel so I am restricted to back garden and local walk with my dog. .......Fortunately a few insects and spring flowers are beginning to appear.

Ivan beautiful Photo and bird. I have heard these guys are really nervous and hard to photograph. I am not sure on the eyebrows they may be hot but my grouse I have the same problem when they are in breeding plumage.
They are quite bright naturally. I still see detail. TFS

Pose, habitat, light all look great. You got a perfect head angle too. That curved stem just had to cross in front of the feather tips now did it!!:t3

Hi Ivan, that's a real belter of an image, love the low POV which is perfect and the OOF vegetation. The warm light works well against the plumage colours of the subject, but my issue is, is that the blacks in the shadows are heavily clipped and so you are loosing a lot of fine detail within the subject. It's there, you just need to back off in Blacks 7 Shadows to allow what you captured come through, ditto the Blue, yes you have that lovely colour, but the saturated Blue is again masking detail. Hope you get more opportunities with this subject Ivan.

The RP is only to show what you have, the Raw will obviously give you a better result, likewise how much blue you may wish to add or subtract.

TFS
Steve

Thank you everyone for the replies and the suggestions. I completely agree with most of them. I realize that it was a very heavy-handed edit that was posted primarily. It was a quick photoshop session when I was far to tired. Here is a new version where I lifted the shadows, went back, handeled the red eyebrow and tried to lift more details in the dark and blue feathers. Very much appreciate your repost Steve, I definately agree regarding the blue but I didn't want to go as far as you did as it doesn't look like the bird natural colors. Eitherway the whole bird looks much better than the first post although it seems quite flat as a whole. I know you only had the JPEG to work with too so I realize the limits. Thanks again, helped a lot!

Wonderful repost. Beautiful image.

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Eitherway the whole bird looks much better than the first post although it seems quite flat as a whole.

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Hi Ivan, not sure about flat, but my main concern was that you had lots more detail to retrieve, but lost it in the OP. As for the Blue I feel that is more of an individual POV. Glad to see you embraced the suggestions. :cheers:

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Originally Posted by Ivan Sjogren

Thank you everyone for the replies and the suggestions. I completely agree with most of them. I realize that it was a very heavy-handed edit that was posted primarily. It was a quick photoshop session when I was far to tired. Here is a new version where I lifted the shadows, went back, handeled the red eyebrow and tried to lift more details in the dark and blue feathers. Very much appreciate your repost Steve, I definately agree regarding the blue but I didn't want to go as far as you did as it doesn't look like the bird natural colors. Eitherway the whole bird looks much better than the first post although it seems quite flat as a whole. I know you only had the JPEG to work with too so I realize the limits. Thanks again, helped a lot!

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Don't push it further up, otherwise it will be over the top. Even in real world, black is sometimes black!!! Really great image and actually, there is not much wrong with the first image.

This is really nice. I'm a huge fan of displaying grouse and would love to photograph this beautiful bird one day.

I agree with the other comments, and I think you've done a nice job addressing them in the repost. Love the natural setting!

Repost looks great! Love the light and the subject.