Not real sure about this shot as I can see traits about it that won't appeal to all.
For some years now an exposure of a Brolga has eluded me because of their skitishness. A few months ago I discovered this amazing billabong that has rather large population of them but unfortunately they still remain at a distance so most of my shots are heavily cropped such as this one. The Brolga can stand up to 1.8 metres tall!
(I have a Kenko 1.4 Extender on its way thanks to Artie)
Having said all of the above I'd love your opinion and comments on how the shot can be improved in post processing.
1DX - 800L - ISO40 - F/8.0 - 1/800 - Mode 5 - Gitzo Tripod with Wimberly - 50% crop (I quickly chose f/8.o when the rear bird caught up with the first in the hope of having both in focus- nearly pulled it off).
Richard
Last edited by Richard Mc Donald; 09-28-2012 at 06:33 AM.
I am sure about it Richard- I love it. The eyes of both birds look in focus which is a challenge as you allude to. I really like the way the cranes complement each other with body position and wing angle. I have a few suggestions for post-processing: BTW I have a calibrated IPS display. The birds have a bluish-grey look and not knowing the species, this could be correct. I would give a slight mid-tone contrast boost (try the Clarity slider in Adobe Camera Raw), and I would give a little boost to the sharpness. For a framed print on your wall, I would clone in some green upper left to even out the BG.
By definition, grey is a neutral colour which means it should have equal amounts of red, green and blue. In the L.A.B. colour space, neutral means that the A and B channels run around 0. Lightish neutral tones often take on a cast from the surroundings which is perfectly natural. Photograph a grey bird in a bright green tree and the grey will reflect the green light and have a green cast. At dusk with golden light, the greys will look warm. I am not sure where the cast on your birds is coming from but it can come from the "decisions" made by ACR in the RAW processing phase in relation to the Temperature and Tint sliders. A predominant colour like your green BG can affect where ACR decides to put the sliders and may throw off your subject. As well, the grey of the Brolga may really be blue-grey!
I use L.A.B. colour space to diagnose and correct colour casts as outlined in this thread starting pane 10.
To diagnose your subjects I took a look at a typical point around the bulge of the neck of the front bird. It was running +5 in A and a massive -17 in B. + in A means magenta and - in B means blue. I adjusted the image to make the greys run about 0,0 ± a few points here and there and here is the result.
An important point is to give your eyes and brain time to adjust to the new image. If you go straight from the OP to the new one the greys will look very very funky.
Finally, I'm not saying this is how Brolgas should look in general or specifically in the case of this particular image with the light the way it was etc.
Brolgas In Flight
