Image capture in early morning light in the Kruger National park. Although there are some strands of grass crossing the face, this image appealed to me due to the alert pose, direct stare and wetness on the nose. I decided against even attempting to remove the grass strands as it depicts the way I typically observe this shy antelope. I applied (tried to..) some valuable advice received from Steve, Diane and Stuart in my previous post in Avian forum today. Please feel free to comment on the techs, I am eager to learn.
Techs: Canon EOS 7D | Canon EF 500mm F4 IS USM– 1/800 @ F/8.0 & ISO: 400 |EB: +0.3 | On beanbag from SUV | PP:
Crop – <10%
LR – Adjust WB | Exp +2 | Contrast +30 | Shadows +20 | Sharpened
PS6 – Decrease HL with Luminosity mask | Burned foreground and RHS| Dodged areas on face and ears| Output sharpen with USM 160/0.5/0
All comments and critique always welcome and appreciated!
Regards
Hennie
Hi Hennie, looks like the thread has made a good change in your Workflow, however the WB mid grey point is just still a fraction off making a difference, likewise the red.
If you have more room, and I am taking that this image is cropped, I would pull out a bit more, giving the subject a bit more room to breathe, and you can adjust the LHS & top, not much, but I personally think it would help. With the highlights why EV +0.33, just interested to know your thinking ? I would watch the +25 Contrast and how you address shadows too, are you using LR's default setting ie Auto? There is more detail in the eyes, but more importantly the nose, it just looks clogged & full IMHO. Adjusting some exposure on the head & neck helps in LR to bring back tone. What route you take regarding Camera calibration is your choice, but certainly I would look to adjusting the red overall and that can be easily done via many routes, you just need to choose the right route and what works for you, not me .
You can, once you have the image balance perhaps look, if you feel the need, to tweaking other areas like the greens, this may not be necessary, I just am using it as another thought to think about and perhaps explore. If you do explore, how far you go is personal choice, I may have pushed it a bit more, however it helps to illustrate the point IMHO.Don't get too bogged down in the techs for PP, they are an integral part, but get you camera techs are key and will save you time. I just add bits into the mix for you to think about.
TFS
Steve
Post Production: It’s ALL about what you do with the tools and not, which brand of tool you use.
Hennie, I can't add much to the tech suggestions made by Steve, except I am curious why you felt the need to up the Exp by +2, to me this made the throat and parts of the ears too bright, losing you some detail.
As with the oxpeckers, Steve's repost has a cooler look than yours.
I also feel you may have gone a bit too far with the contrast (+25) and the sharpening. It can be time consuming but what worked for me was preparing different versions with gradual changes in the contrast and sharpening until I had ball park settings that I could as my regular start point.
Composition wise it would be nice to have a bit more space at the top of the frame.
Last edited by Martin Dunn; 09-25-2013 at 06:03 AM.
Reason: grammar
Hi Hennie - I like the eye contact and alert pose. Steve's very in-depth critique and rp have given you lots to digest and work with. The best thing to do is take it a step at a time and shout if you have any questions. I'm also curious about the added exposure, particularly in LR.
I'm also curious about the added exposure, particularly in LR.
Hi Rachel, in LR you can apply lots of adjustments, one is Exposure (within this you can also adjust highlights, contrast etc etc in one go to refine even more) and be specific in it's targeting, I just added some to parts of the head & neck to tone the brighter highlights down and to bring out more detail, hope that clarifies things.
Post Production: It’s ALL about what you do with the tools and not, which brand of tool you use.
Steve - I know that those adjustments can be made in LR but unless the numbers are drastically different than ACR or other pp programs then Hennie has indicated he added +2 of exposure compensation in LR (on top of the +.3 in the field).
First of all, thank you very much to all for looking and again for the valued help.
Steve - Minimal crop, ironically on only the sides you suggested space added! - My intention was to minimize dead space, but in seeing the image today I do agree it is a bit to tight. On the camera setting of EC +0.3, I was taught by a friend and amateur photographer to set this as standard/default on all Canon cameras as Canon underexpose by default, particularly in sunny regions, eg South Africa. Do I understand correctly that this is not the case - I would love feedback on this point, as I said, my camera is set to EC+0.3 basically all teh time?
I increased to Contrast to increase the tonal range on the histogram, am I wrong in that approach or did I just go to far?
On the exposure - I to was surprised/confused with the +2 when I got the e-mail of your response, had a look when I got home this evening - Apologies, typo, Exp was +0.2! Sorry.
I usually try the LR auto setting to start, but very seldom use it in the end. I set all manually.
I address shadows by using the Shadows, then Blacks and if the value for Shadows go beyond 50, I adjust the Exposure slider until no blacks are clipping/no blue warnings show anymore - Is this acceptable to manage the details in the blacks?
I will change my sharpening setting to the mentioned.
Thank you kindly for the detailed critique. I appreciate.
Martin - Thank you for helping again. I answered your two questions in the answer address at Steve. I think you have an excellent suggestion regarding playing with a image with gradual changes to get a feel and decide on an future bal park to start from. I will start with this image and look at a few comparisons.
Rachel - I agree on Steve giving me a lot to digest! This is becoming hard work! - Haha - but it really motivates me to get it right. I actually recently bought Arthur Morris's Digital Basics pdf and is busy working through it, I am sure it can only benefit my workflow and understanding.
Hi Hennie, firstly and I will put it on record, the 7D is not my favourite camera! Daniel C and one or two others have mastered it, but IMHO it's not the most forgiving camera, but I would speak/contact Morkel for more advice as he once shot with this and may have a better idea on it's works.
Your best bet is to always review the Histogram, not the LCD and expose to the right, but to the point where you don't blow the whites. If you have it, set the camera to Highlights alerts where you see the blinkies alerting you to any blown whites so you can pull back the EV. Getting an even spread will ensure you capture the most amount of information resulting in a better image with more tone.
Just watch the 'traffic lights' in the Histogram, get those right you can then proceed to the next stage.
I'm not going to overstep on Arties PDF, however I'm not sure if this was written prior to LR 4 or 5.2 and therefore adjustments might be more 'refined' due to software refinement.
Post Production: It’s ALL about what you do with the tools and not, which brand of tool you use.
Hennie - I still use a 7D as well as my 5D3. I do not think nor have I read/heard that Canons underexpose all images. They do tend to skew more to the reds and yellows while Nikon tends to skew more green and blue. I do not nor have I ever heard of adding a set amount of EC to every shot. Take a shot or 2, look at the histogram and adjust your exposure accordingly. That being said, it is better to expose to the right (ETTR) then to have an underexposed image because you will introduce noise when correcting an underexposed image in pp.
Rachel - Thank you very much for the info. I am planning to visit a local bird hide on Saturday, so I will experiment with the camera and EC.
Regards
Hennie
Hi Hennie,
I'll not comment too much on the pic other than to say the subject is cute, its overall a little tight for my taste, and it was probably a good idea to not start trying to remove grasses. Always seems to be one more than you want to touch up once you do the first one.
As for the 7D, I've shot with mine for a few years now and find it to produce somewhat inconsistent results. Sometimes amazing detail, other times not so much. I'm 99% sure its something I'm doing/not doing but I haven't figured it out yet. I will say things have improved/gotten more consistent since I started using an incident light meter to better judge my exposures and setting the camera up manually rather than using AV mode.
Steenbok in habitat
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? I would watch the +25 Contrast and how you address shadows too, are you using LR's default setting ie Auto? There is more detail in the eyes, but more importantly the nose, it just looks clogged & full IMHO. Adjusting some exposure on the head & neck helps in LR to bring back tone. What route you take regarding Camera calibration is your choice, but certainly I would look to adjusting the red overall and that can be easily done via many routes, you just need to choose the right route and what works for you, not me 
.
