South Beach.....Of Ft. DeSoto .

[Clyde Hopper]

I spent a few hours Sunday ,Lying on my stomach ,in the wet sand of "South Beach" Ft.DeSoto . It was an overcast day with periods of rain . The Beach was mostly empty and void of Human interruptions .Yep ,It was a good day ! Shore Birds were everywhere ! I liked this particular photo because of the Action the bird was doing ,As well as ,the look on the birds face caught me .Exif Data ,Camera Nikon D90 - Shutter Speed =1/2000 - Aperture = 6.3 - Focal Length = 450mm - ISO = 500 - Shot in Aperture Priority -Hand Held -Lens is the Sigma 150-500 . PP was in ACR ,About 50% crop ,and a levels adjustment in CS6 . All c&c welcome. Now that I see the photo today I see a spot behind the bird's tail , at water level that needs some removal work.......I missed that one :((

[Michael Gerald-Yamasaki]

Clyde,

Greetings. I like the preening moment with the ruffed feathers and surprisingly the closed eye. Looks like you clipped blacks with the lack of detail in the beak and legs. Depending the levels adjustment may be at fault. The white/color balance seems off to me with the sand and feathers too red... at least to my eye. Could use some additional sharpening. Good low angle on the shot.

Thanks for posting.

Cheers,

-Michael-

[P-A. Fortin]

I also like the preening pose. Normally I don't enjoy images with eyes closed but this one actually does not bug me at all. Good low angle as well.

Bird is a bit too centered to my taste though, might have moved it a bit to the left, or to the right. I know the usual rule is to leave some room in front of the bird's looking direction. But in this specific scenario, considering the body position, I'm trying different crops in PS and I can't tell which version I'd prefer.

Blacks are indeed clipped and the image overall looks too contrasty. Maybe this is the result of your levels adjustment?

White balance also seems a bit off to me here, but unlike Michael I see a blue cast in the feathers. But my eye is not that good at judging this so... I might be wrong :)

I notice that your image does not have an embedded color profile. I made the same mistake in an image I posted earlier this week and Steve Kaluski pointed it out to me. This thread might help you here: http://www.birdphotographers.net/for...-for-Web-in-PS


Thanks for sharing.

[Clyde Hopper]

Thank You ,Michael And P-A.Fortin . I made some adjustments . First I opened the PSD copy and went to the levels adjustment layer . activated the mask part and painted over the legs and beak with a black brush .I then thought it could go a bit lighter yet ,and with the "Dodge "tool set at 26% , went back over the same places .Then I created a color adjustment layer and moved the red-Cyan slider 2 points away from red . Finally I copied the base layer and used a High pass filter for sharpening . My last steps are ,File>aut0mate >fit image . then Save for web . Thanks again for all help ! Now on my way to read the post suggested .....

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Clyde the blacks even in the RP look heavy and choking the finer detail, if you have added any 'Contrast' then try switching that layer off if you have done it as an adjustment layer, or if it's in the RAW conversion, set it to zero and export again then add your tweaks as per before. Remember, it's within your mid tones that your detail is contained, avoid clogging your shadows & blacks.

[Clyde Hopper]

I went back and started from the Raw file .ACR-7.4 .cropped the bird a little off center, clicked the eye dropper on what I thought was the whitest spot of the bird . Moved the blacks slider to the right (Just short of all the way) . Opened in CS6 ,this time instead of a levels layer ,I made a curves layer (Hit the auto button ). Then selected the bird and placed it on a separate layer . made an exposure layer ,and lowered the Back ground . On the bird I again dodged the beak and legs . I also used a High pass filter on the bird .Saved for web as per this thread http://www.birdphotographers.net/for...-for-Web-in-PS Again ,Thanks for all the help , The more I learn ,the more I realize just how much I really DON'T know.

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Clyde your hard work has paid off big time, one cool image.

Clyde if you look at the Histogram in ACR or LR you want the two triangles to be a dark grey, those if you like are your traffic lights, stop & go, if they are not right you have to stop! Now you could then try auto WB, but with LR you can then use the eye dropper to locate a mid grey point which is generally a good starting point to progress things IMHO. Personally I prefer not to add any Contrast, but that is just me and as a lot of people who know me know, I tend to preach, 'Less is more'. in other words, the more you get right in camera, the less you need to do at PP, the better the image outcome.

The more I learn ,the more I realize just how much I really DON'T know.

Oh so true, now who said that?

[Michael Gerald-Yamasaki]

Clyde,

Greetings. Great improvement in the 2nd RP. Good color & detail in the blacks. Detail in the eye & feather detail are improved as well. Good show!

Cheers,

-Michael-

[jack williamson]

The last repost is beautiful, well done Clyde.

Jack

[Clyde Hopper]

Again ,Thanks for all the help, all of you . It never ceases to amaze me how ,When someone points out a mistake ,It becomes so obvious .

[Steve Kaluski]

Clyde just ensure if you are using CS6 that in Save for Web ensure:

- Optimize
- Embed Colour Profile
- Convert to sRGB

Are all checked in the initial window of this 'Action' even though you will have applied Convert to Profile and changed the Destination space, you need to have these checked to, to avoid issues.

[Clyde Hopper]

Clyde just ensure if you are using CS6 that in Save for Web ensure:

- Optimize
- Embed Colour Profile
- Convert to sRGB

Are all checked in the initial window of this 'Action' even though you will have applied Convert to Profile and changed the Destination space, you need to have these checked to, to avoid issues.

Before reading the thread suggested by P-A Fortin ,there were several mistakes in my s-f-w-process . The "Embed color profile ' box was NOT checked and I was NOT saving in sRGB .So that in it's self was a great help ! I can't Thank you guys enough !

[Robert Kimbrell]

Excellent recovery Clyde. Much Much better.