Ibis coming home

[Toan Huynh]

Finally I got a photo of bird in fly at eye level and there's some catch light in the eye.
Canon 550D + EF-S 55-250 at 250mm, ISO 400, f/6.3, 1/4000s


Ibis coming home by zoroa3, on Flickr

C&C greatly appreciated
I've cropped it and edited contrast in LR. I don't know if this composition is ok? Because this photo has been cropped so I can crop it again.

[Diane Miller]

Hi Toan,

I think you got a very nice and sharp capture of the flying pose here. I might add just a little more room on the left side; the rest of the composition is very pleasing to me.

You got very nice detail in the whites but the darks feel too heavy. In LR I usually start with a linear curve and then if contrast is too high I adjust the Shadows slider to the right and the Highlights to the left until I get a good balance. If contrast is too low at that point I would add a little Clarity then try a different Curve, or move the Contrast slider. It's important to keep an eye on the histogram to keep from losing detail in darks or lights. But bringing up Shadows can often reveal noise, a frustrating situation.

Also, some monitors aren't that good at showing the tonalities accurately. Are you calibrated and profiled? That's very important. At the bottom of each page here there is a gray wedge -- if you aren't seeing the tones distributed evenly, you won't be seeing images accurately.

[Marina Scarr]

Very nice flight pose and angle. Would give it a tad more room on the left if you have it. It's too bad the light was harsh causing such contrast.

[Sandy Witvoet]

Great flight shot! As suggested above, the darks are a bit too dark...high catch-light does say harsh light. Like the stick in bill, but the way it curves and intersects with the bird's head is a bit odd. All in all, very good capture! Congrats!

[Toan Huynh]

Hi Toan,

I think you got a very nice and sharp capture of the flying pose here. I might add just a little more room on the left side; the rest of the composition is very pleasing to me.

You got very nice detail in the whites but the darks feel too heavy. In LR I usually start with a linear curve and then if contrast is too high I adjust the Shadows slider to the right and the Highlights to the left until I get a good balance. If contrast is too low at that point I would add a little Clarity then try a different Curve, or move the Contrast slider. It's important to keep an eye on the histogram to keep from losing detail in darks or lights. But bringing up Shadows can often reveal noise, a frustrating situation.

Also, some monitors aren't that good at showing the tonalities accurately. Are you calibrated and profiled? That's very important. At the bottom of each page here there is a gray wedge -- if you aren't seeing the tones distributed evenly, you won't be seeing images accurately.

Thank you for your comment. I'm playing with LR. I haven't used the curve before, don't know that it can be really useful.

[Toan Huynh]

Thanks Marina and Sandy. I edited the crop and the dark side. Hope this one could be an improve :D

[IMG] IMG_5336-3 by zoroa3, on Flickr[/IMG]

[LinzRiverBalmer]

much improved over the first one.

The suggestions given were great and will help me out too.... need to play with the curves in LR, Thanks to Diane for the mini lesson.

Now my only big beef with this is the head, the pre post was better, you can probably go into LR with the selective brush and darken the black again on the head neck and move the contrast around. Again on the wing tips with this maybe too. I'm new to LR too so don't quote me, someone else may chime in but I'm pretty sure you can go back and take an effect off of certain areas by using the selective brush tool.

Could also try a gradient on the sky, bottom or top just to play with the lighting. Very nice shot!!!

[Diane Miller]

The head and neck look perfect in your RP -- the darks in the back wing tip might be a little light. You might not be seeing it right -- do you have a calibrated monitor? That can make a huge difference in how darks are displayed -- see the test strip at the bottom of every page here -- all the sections should be distinguishable. And even if it is, if the viewing angle up / down changes how light / dark things are, you need to be viewing it at a 90 degree angle.

But yes, you can click on the Adjustment Brush (and its companion adjustment tools) and edit it's adjustment, but of course if you have subsequently gone into PS, you'll have to start over with whatever you did there. (If you didn't clone or crop, you can bring in a new layer above your old BG layer, or you can bring the image in in the first place from LR s a smart Object, in which you can edit the LR adjustments.)

[Grace Scalzo]

Wow, the ladies who are posting above know alot more than me. I just don't shoot in light like this and instead aim for early morning or evening light. I find it much more pleasing. You're never going to get that underwing lit up nicely with high overhead light.

[Toan Huynh]

I don't calibrate my monitor. However I think I can see all the gradients from the test strip on this site.
Thanks for your guides, I see there a lot of things to do with my photo in LR. I spend only a few minutes processing for each photo I taken.
Is it ok to post another edition of the edited image?

[Diane Miller]

Grace is quite right about high-contrast mid-day light. It can never be adjusted to match the sweet look of soft light early and late in the day. But we have more tools all the time for at least mitigating it somewhat.

With a good starting image, only a few minutes in LR is all that is generally needed, once you have some experience using it.

Monitor calibration (and the second step, of profiling) is very important, for any monitor. (But they can vary a lot and some will be better out of the box than others.) The exception may be laptops, which generally don't calibrate well. And newer iMacs have "special needs." ColorEyes Display Pro is (at least the last time I looked, over a year ago) the only calibration program that can get the brightness / contrast into the proper range.

The point of calibration /profiling is so your monitor will accurately reflect what is in the image file. This article is 6 years old but gives the foundation: http://www.adorama.com/alc/0008239/a...e-Your-Monitor

There is a lot of information on the Internet.

[Sandy Witvoet]

Hi Toan, Good job on the repost! I'm fine with head and neck....shows details nicely. Would love to see one of these birds someday!

[Toan Huynh]

Grace is quite right about high-contrast mid-day light. It can never be adjusted to match the sweet look of soft light early and late in the day. But we have more tools all the time for at least mitigating it somewhat.

With a good starting image, only a few minutes in LR is all that is generally needed, once you have some experience using it.

Monitor calibration (and the second step, of profiling) is very important, for any monitor. (But they can vary a lot and some will be better out of the box than others.) The exception may be laptops, which generally don't calibrate well. And newer iMacs have "special needs." ColorEyes Display Pro is (at least the last time I looked, over a year ago) the only calibration program that can get the brightness / contrast into the proper range.

The point of calibration /profiling is so your monitor will accurately reflect what is in the image file. This article is 6 years old but gives the foundation: http://www.adorama.com/alc/0008239/a...e-Your-Monitor

There is a lot of information on the Internet.

I have never considered the important of post processing and its effect. Thing has to be changed now. I will do calibrate my monitor... when I get a new one. I am lazy to change anything in my old laptop now
Thank you very much for your tips.

[Toan Huynh]

Hi Toan, Good job on the repost! I'm fine with head and neck....shows details nicely. Would love to see one of these birds someday!

There're a lot of them in Australia. They're too common so people generally doesn't care about them. For me they're lovely when flying. Also they are suitable for amateur technique and gear :D