Portrait of a hawk cuckoo

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

Camera	Canon EOS 7D
Exposure	(1/400)
Aperture	f/6.3
Focal Length	700 mm
ISO Speed	400
Exposure Bias	0 EV
Flash	Off, Did not fire

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Sanjeev, something like this I think you have to either go for the whole subject & pull out, or a detail shot, ie close-up of the head. I might suggest cropping tighter if the IQ is there and dare I say, a square crop!!! Cropping above the branch but retaining the with part and obviously the head. Lovely BKG.

In addition I would suggest:
- Luminosity adjustment around 60%
- Mid tone adjustment 10%
- Tweaks of both Neutral & Black in Selective colour

In the above mask out the eye

Apply say two more rounds of selective sharpening to the subject.

If you had the SS then a bit more DOF, but was the focus point on the eye, looks like the shoulder?

Hope this helps.

TFS
Steve

[Loi Nguyen]

Sanjeev, you had good suggestion from Steve there. I'm with Steve on the crop. That was my first reaction. The eye is a bit soft as you can see by the wide catch light.

steve, I don't understand about the luminosity mask and mid tone adjustment that you see. Could you elaborate why? This PP is still beyond me.

thanks

loi

[Steve Kaluski]

Loi, you will find a Luminosity adjustment as a sticky in the header panel of Landscapes. Mid tone is a curves adjustment, but mine is set up as an Action, as it uses calculations & subtractions.