African Purple Swamphen - making a dash for cover

[Richard Flack]

Location: Bullfrog Pan, Benoni, South Africa
Date: 28 February 2014

Medium crop, sharpened, brightened

Photo details:
Canon EOS 7D
400mm f2.8 (1.4 extender)
ISO 800
Shutter speed 1/1600
F stop 7.1
Exposure bias 0

All comments are welcome. Thanks in advance!

[Randall Farhy]

Hi Richard, gorgeous bird, nice running pose/wing position. Perhaps a little more room top/bottom. Image looks high on contrast as shadows are blocked and highlights seem hot but not wiped out. I try not to make a habit of posting reworked images, hope you don't mind me doing so here- all work in LR5-image would look much better with work done to the RAW as wonky things start to happen with huge shadow adjustments. Note the legs, darker wing and shadow area detail ~recovered in rp.

Exposure dialed back .48
Contrast -5
Highlights -33
Shadow +64 (three way juggling act re: exposure highlight/shadow)
Whites -7
Blacks +10

Clarity +5
Vibrance +14

HSL
-2 Aqua Luminance

Interested in knowing what others think about this-R

[gail bisson]

The pose is very good. I like the water splash around the legs.
I think that Randall's post has helped.
The harsh light has caused a lot of contrast and it is difficult to get details in the shadows.
I would rework the RAW starting by decreasing the exposure selectively on the bird ( exclude the dark shadowed areas )and feather the selection by 2 or 3 pixels to soften any transition line.
Then I would see what the S & H tool can do for the shadowed areas.
I would also fix the area in the RLC where you have done some cloning work. I see a repeating pattern there.
Gail

[Randall Farhy]

Gail, good catch on the repeat, and point re: selective adjustments well taken-I should've used that approach using the brush in LR5 in conjunction with the other tools for the rp.

[Richard Flack]

Hi Randall and Gail. Thanks so much for the helpful comments. I still need to learn a ton about post processing, so the hints and tips are much appreciated! Thank you!
(Gail, yip, sorry forgot to mention the cloning. Was a bit rushed, so will fix it up, thanks)