I was photographing this Australasian Darter when it started calling. I've changed it to a 4 x 5 crop by removing a strip from both sides. I increased the exposure, added +3 clarity, +6 vibrance and +6 saturation in LR4, along with sharpening 40, detail 28 and luminance 5. I'd be grateful for any thoughts on how to improve the IQ.
Oh dear, I've somehow done it wrong again and have no thumbnail, sorry. I didn't post camera details: Canon 7D, 100-400mm L IS USM, 1/640, f/5.6, ISO 200, focal length 390mm.
Beautiful Bird ,I like the open mouth and the feathers in the mouth too . It is often suggested to position your self ,with the sun at your back ,as well as the wind from behind you too . Though the feather detail looks good to me better light angle may have even increased this and lowered the shadow on the side towards the camera . Again they (TO ME ) are not problem-matic with this shot . as to your thumb nail not appearing on the main page ,I believe you will find that only will happen after becoming a member ,as your avatar is showing "Participant .
Hi Clyde, I think you're right, a better light angle would have been good for detail. It's a shame birds don't read the manuals and position themselves a bit more thoughtfully ;) Having said that I think the backlighting shows some interesting features and I'm wondering if it's possible to improve the IQ somehow.
Thanks for explaining about the thumbnail, I haven't got a PayPal account so can't join easily :(
Kim, agree with both Clyde (about the light angle) and you (about the birds not positioning themselves with photographers in mind , but also liking backlit photos sometimes. I took a stab at a bit of post to give you an idea of what you might do. First, I did a levels adjustment on the upper part of the background (lasso tool, then feathered by 15 pixels, bottom highlight slider toward the left until it started to go dark) and then cleaned up the brighter spots with clone tool. Then on another layer, I did a curves adjustment for the highlights/shadows of the head and turned on "show clipping". The reds were clipped all around the mouth area, so I desaturated the reds in Hue/Saturation - Reds. While there, I also turned down the lightness of the yellow channel. Lastly, I did a selective curves adjustment on the eye area to bring up the shadows a bit and ran some noise reduction on the background. Hopefully, this will give give you a place to start working on the RAW file. You can save highlights better working on the RAW file during initial conversion. I'm sure others can give you better suggestions. I'm not that great at post processing.
Last edited by Jeannean Ryman; 03-05-2013 at 01:08 PM.
Wow! Thank you Jeannean, I really appreciate you sharing your ideas and re-posting an image that looks so much better than mine. I've not used curves or layers yet, or looked at 'show clipping' so I'm off to practise some new things ...
Kim, fantastic shot of this darter. I had a couple pointers, which upon scrolling down, realized that Jeannean nailed all of them with her lovely repost. Usually folks like the sun straight on the bird, however I really enjoy the backlit darter here, with the fringe lighting. Lovely pose too, with that wide open beak. Keep 'em coming!
Hey Kim. Pretty cool image especially the feather in the bill. I like that the bill is backlit also . The repost is a great improvement as it draws more attention to the subject.
Australasian Darter
, but also liking backlit photos sometimes. I took a stab at a bit of post to give you an idea of what you might do. First, I did a levels adjustment on the upper part of the background (lasso tool, then feathered by 15 pixels, bottom highlight slider toward the left until it started to go dark) and then cleaned up the brighter spots with clone tool. Then on another layer, I did a curves adjustment for the highlights/shadows of the head and turned on "show clipping". The reds were clipped all around the mouth area, so I desaturated the reds in Hue/Saturation - Reds. While there, I also turned down the lightness of the yellow channel. Lastly, I did a selective curves adjustment on the eye area to bring up the shadows a bit and ran some noise reduction on the background. Hopefully, this will give give you a place to start working on the RAW file. You can save highlights better working on the RAW file during initial conversion. I'm sure others can give you better suggestions. I'm not that great at post processing.
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