Australian Ibis

[Thonnaksar NOP]

Hi all,
I started photographing birds 2 years ago, just after buying my first DSLR.
I have very little knowledge in digital photography. By joining BPN, I'd like to share my enthousiasm to capture australian birds and at the same time hope to improve my skill in post-processing digital files.

For my first contribution in this section, I like to show you a portrait of australian ibis. The picture has been made early in the afternoon (harsh light !), but I tried to add more relief and colours to this plain black&white bird by working with a back-light and using an advertising bord nearby as a background.

D2HS, 70-200 VR, 1/320", f/4, @170mm, ISO 200, RAW file converted to JPEG in Nikon Capture 4.4



Best Regards,
Thonnaksar

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Welcome, Thonnaksar. Very nice first post. I'm always happy to see birds I'm not familiar with, so keep them coming. :)

I like the idea, the BG makes the head stand out well. I would suggest to tone down the overexposed white on the neck, desaturate the BG a few points give the image a little bit more room right and top.

[Alfred Forns]

Tough bird to expose Seems somewhat backlit which makes it even tougher Would suggest getting a good sun angle or fill flash !!!

[Lana Hays]

Welcome, Thonnaksar
Despite the light you have some nice detail and the image is sharp. I like Axel's suggestion about toning down the BG. You can't beat early/late light coming from the right direction or fill flash so that's certainly something to think about in future.
I wish I had been into birds and photography when I was in Australia many years ago. Hopefully you will post many more birds...and remind me of all that I missed when I was there.

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

Hi Sar,

A HUGE welcome to you here. Glad you came along.
As always, a very nice image! I guess with that little white hot patch on the neck you may try a selective color adjustment or just trim it slightly above?

[Thonnaksar NOP]

Welcome, Thonnaksar. Very nice first post. I'm always happy to see birds I'm not familiar with, so keep them coming. :)

I like the idea, the BG makes the head stand out well. I would suggest to tone down the overexposed white on the neck, desaturate the BG a few points give the image a little bit more room right and top.

Thanks Axel for your input.
I wasn't sure about the colours rendition of the BG as I was working on two different monitors.

[Thonnaksar NOP]

Tough bird to expose Seems somewhat backlit which makes it even tougher Would suggest getting a good sun angle or fill flash !!!

Yep, fill-flash ! I keep forgetting it !:(

Welcome, Thonnaksar
Despite the light you have some nice detail and the image is sharp. I like Axel's suggestion about toning down the BG. You can't beat early/late light coming from the right direction or fill flash so that's certainly something to think about in future.
I wish I had been into birds and photography when I was in Australia many years ago. Hopefully you will post many more birds...and remind me of all that I missed when I was there.

Thanks Lana.
I totally agree with about the light, around sunrise and sunset it's always the best and technically the most challenging as well.
I certainly will post more species of aussie birds here, Lana.;)

Hi Sar,

A HUGE welcome to you here. Glad you came along.
As always, a very nice image! I guess with that little white hot patch on the neck you may try a selective color adjustment or just trim it slightly above?

Hi Akos,
Thanks for your message. This is an excellent place to learn about bird photography that's why I decided to come along.

What do you mean by "selective colour adjustment" and "trim it slightly above" ?

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

Yep, fill-flash ! I keep forgetting it !:(





Thanks Lana.
I totally agree with about the light, around sunrise and sunset it's always the best and technically the most challenging as well.
I certainly will post more species of aussie birds here, Lana.;)







Hi Akos,
Thanks for your message. This is an excellent place to learn about bird photography that's why I decided to come along.

What do you mean by "selective colour adjustment" and "trim it slightly above" ?

You can go to (in Photoshop) Image-Adjustments-Selective color then in the dialog box pick "white" from the drop down menu, select the "black" channel (bottom slider) and make sure that the METHOD on the bottom is relative, NOT absolute.

And by trimming, you can crop above the slightly hot whites, which is easier. :)

OR, which is what I do now, go to LAYER-NEW ADJUSTMETN LAYER- SELECTIVE COLOR and as per the instructions above, this just does a layer adjustment.

[Thonnaksar NOP]

I see ! So far, I've never used Photoshop (only Nikon Capture 4.4). But in the next few days, I'll receive CS3 with others stuffs as well for my Mac. That will be for me a long march to perfection...


Best Regards,
Thonnaksar