Originally I had decided against this one in favor #4 (prior post) as the flash hadn't fired, making it appear dark with less subject/BG separation. After going over it in post, I'm not so sure. Went with a 16x10 format to drop the top edge slightly (edge to edge are original frame).
This image captures the season a little better, and I also prefer the wing position and clarity of the main bird. Would like to explore canvas expansion to give more room on both edges as well as the bottom. Also want to remove or subdue that distracting gray branch near bird 2.
Thoughts appreciated.
Canon 7D
400mm F5.6L
Flash DNF
ISO 800 F5.6
Hand held, panned at 1/250
Manual Exposure settings based on flash adding fill.
Center cluster back button focus, AI Servo
Post- LR4 for RAW conversion, Noise Reduction in Topaz5, LR4 Adjustments: Levels (+.71 exposure), Clarity, Vibrance, Defringe, Minimal crop. Sharpened, detail sharpen on birds, resized 1024P for Web then output sharpened .3P @ 35%, remove lens blur setting.
Just went to check out the other before commenting. I like this one better. Very nice wing position and focus on the front bird. I think what you have in mind (especially that gray branch) is the right direction. Might try a little off the top, add to the bottom and right side? Just another idea to play with. :) Nice image.
Thanks for posting additional views this is nice one as well. As you know there are still hot pixels and opportunity for a faster shutter nice exposure technique with the high ISO. A couple of points to consider, the geese are past you and heading away from the lens and the picture is a bit tight IMO but thats me. Finally the last one intersects with a branch in the background controlling the fame is critical. I know you probably were mashing the shutter and hoping for a clean shot - I do it all the time.
Keep working on critical sharpness (clean eye & sharp feather detail) and muted backgrounds you are one the right track here. The moment is very nice you have the eye for photography keep posting and improving they go hand in hand.
Last edited by Jeff Cashdollar; 10-25-2012 at 01:37 PM.
Thanks Jeannean, also as noted by Jeff, it is a bit tight, adding canvas is an alternative (not something I plan to rely on however as my skills in PS are rather rudimentary. It's a challenge framing multiple birds from a flock with the long lens in close. Have tried using the 300 in this spot, but the AF just doesn't track as well as the 400.
Jeff, Thanks- as always. I'm at a loss regarding those "hot pixels" Both images were underexposed, this one by 3/4 of a stop because the flash didn't act as fill-the RAW is dark. Going to a faster shutter would've helped on the hot spot (s) but would only have made matters worse for the rest of the image. Underexposing too far at ISO 800 requires the use of stronger NR to recover, at the expense of detail. I suppose I could add grain or patch detail into those blown highlights as a recovery method.
As for using a faster shutter with fill flash, I've experimented with it and the dropoff is too much at any kind of distance. Might get one properly exposed pop at 20-30ft, but beyond that it's just about useless for a single flashhead-even at 1/500 or so. Other issues with a faster shutter would be losing the background to underexposure or increasing it's clarity, making it more distracting.
I agree that geese are a bit past and preferable to be a bit coming.
But hot pixels? Where, like this screen shot of whitest area I could find? Even then it is not all hot, most is slightly under 255, 255, 255. Don't let lack of detail be confused as hot, detail requires contrast edges and if all the feathers are white, or same color, you will not see detail of them.
And besides, so what if less than 0.5% of the image is "hot"? I don't feel that is enough to bother the viewer.
Tom
Last edited by Tom Graham; 10-31-2012 at 04:47 AM.
I agree that geese are a bit past and preferable to be a bit coming.
But hot pixels? Where, like this screen shot of whitest area I could find? Even then it is not all hot, most is slightly under 255, 255, 255. Don't let lack of detail be confused as hot, detail requires contrast edges and if all the feathers are white, or same color, you will not see detail of them.
And besides, so what if less than 0.5% of the image is "hot"? I don't feel that is enough to bother the viewer.
Tom
I agree with Tom in regard to this image, but I wondered if Jeff's comment was general rather than specific.
Randall, you indicated that your Photoshop skills are such that you're reluctant to rely on adding canvas that way. My experience has been that you'll have more keepers -- or at least be happier with the composition -- if you do use Photoshop to add canvas. With a recent version of Photoshop and the ability to mask reasonably well, it's surprisingly easy. If you reply with the version of Photoshop you have and you feel you can do masking with whatever software, I'll give you a few steps to follow.
Tom: Even though I've learned that pixel peeping doesn't always translate to better images, I'm still guilty of the habit from time to time. Especially when trying to improve my post-work skill sets. Thanks for reminding me of this fact. :)
Dennis: I concur that my "keeper" rate would improve using this method. It's not that I'm reluctant, or some sort of purist-it's more of a time concern. It seems to take me longer than most to pick up and become proficient with anything related to software editing. I guess my thinking is still a little "old school" or impractical in trying to nail down everything in-camera. I'm currently using Lightroom4 software with the Topaz suite of plugins as my primary processing software, along with Photoshop Elements 9. I hope to have CS6 up and running in a couple of weeks-any advice / methods offered are appreciated.
Randall, here's a version with expanded canvas (left, right, and bottom), no gray branch, and the geese re-positioned individually (not that it's necessary, but I wanted to demonstrate what could be done with just a couple extra steps).
It could be done differently, but this is how I approached it. Based on what you've said about using software, I'll try not to leave anything out. Please forgive me if I give too much or too little information.
You indicated that you use the Topaz products. I have Topaz ReMask and used that to mask away everything but the geese. Don't worry about the gray branch at this point. It's part of the background and will be dealt with, later.
Select the Crop tool and move the edges an appropriate amount. You'll have the original image with space between it and the new boundaries.
Turn off the eye icon on the Topaz Remask layer.
Select the Lasso tool, and draw, individually, around one of the geese. If it's the left one, include the gray branch. Rather than getting real close to the goose, go around quickly, leaving a little space between the line and the goose.
Just below the menu line at the top of the screen, go to the second set of icons, the one with four in it. Click the second one in that set. It will allow you to add the other goose to the selection you made in the previous step.
Now, draw the line around the second goose.
At this point, you should have two shapes with dashed lines, one around each goose. On the menu line, go to Edit/Fill. In the Contents box in the window that pops up, there's a Use box with an arrow. Make sure Content-Aware is selected, and click OK. That will fill in the two shapes.
On the menu line, go to Select/Deselect to get rid of the dashed lines.
If you're using a PC, use the shortcut Ctrl>T. (Cmd>T on a Mac???) This will put a box around the original image. Just drag the handles to expand it to fill the empty space between the image and the boundaries of the larger canvas you made, earlier.
Now, make the Topaz ReMask layer with the geese visible. Select the Move tool and move them wherever you want. If you want to move them independently, Layer/Duplicate will give you another layer just like the other. Make one of the layers invisible. In the other, click the mask icon and, with a hard black brush at 100% opacity, get rid of one of the geese. Then, make that layer invisible and the other layer visible and brush away the other goose.
Dennis- Thank you, I appreciate your taking the time to outline and post the results. It's pretty amazing what can be achieved with a little imagination and good old fashioned know how. The 2nd image certainly has a stronger composition. I know what I'll be doing when it's just too nasty to be outside this winter.
Canada Geese Frame 5
Originally Posted by Tom Graham
