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Northern Cardinal
T2i with 400mm f/5.6L shot using a tripod from a blind near a feeder at f8.0, RAW, 1/640, ISO 400, evaluative metering +1/3 exposure compensation. One-Shot AF using back button focusing on central focus point on the cheek just below the eye. The original is 5184 x 3456 cropped to 3576 x 2384.
I shot this in early morning sunlight (8AM). I noticed when when shooting male cardinals in good light some areas of the red are too vibrant (hot???) IMHO taking away some feather detail. In this particular shot I brought saturation down -1 in DPP, then further brought down saturation above and below the eye area with LR adjustment brush.
Distance was approximately 15'-18', bird to camera.
All thoughts welcome.
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Hi David-Nice look back pose with a clean bg. Focus and detail look pretty good- the reds are still a bit too saturated-notably the cheek and crown. Contrast can be reduced a touch, this will help with the saturation issue. Using LR you can also adjust the red/ orange channel in the HSL dropdown-just watch your tones on the branch and belly. Doing so will also help bring finer detail out in the more saturated areas.
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Nice shot, and a wonderful first post! Welcome!
I love cardinals! The reds don't look that out of control here. Wonderful sharpness and detail. I'd think about removing some (about half) of the empty space on the right side.
I'm rushed for time right now, but with Canons, the first thing to look at with hot reds when using Lightroom or Adobe Camera Raw is the Profiles in the Camera Calibration tab. Don't know if you have those choices in DPP but would assume so. Find one that shows more detail, then bring UP saturation in the converter or PS. You can often get more detail that way.
In Photoshop try this, for a little more boost:
http://www.adorama.com/alc/0011773/a...digital-photos
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Nice shot David. I think the reds look fine here.I have been shooting a lot of cardinals here all winter and certain males are really getting brighter in the reds.You really see the bright reds when shooting the front of the bird and I know some people will think their oversaturated. But thats just the case with breeding cardinals. Yours looks spot on.
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Thank you all for the kind words and thank you Randall and Diane for the tips/suggestions. I am 'eager to learn' for sure! Wish I would have been this eager when I was in school! I went back into Lightroom and took another look at 100% and I really cant seem to bring out any detail in the bright red's without destroying the color and making it look unnatural.
Diane, I agree, I cropped a bit off the front as you suggested and it does look better. Thank you.
Kevin, thanks to you also for the kind words of encouragement. I have shot quite a few pictures of male cardinals and it seems this always happens when they are in full sun and and wasn't sure if I was doing something wrong or if that's just the way they are. They certainly are bright for sure!
I'm patiently waiting for 'my' Painted Buntings to return to my property so I can try getting some good shots of them. I have two or three pair that come here in April and spend the summer.
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The key to good reds is not to look directly at the color, but to look for loss of detail and see if you can get some of it back. In this case, with very small feathers on the bird's head, there just may not be much detail. I think you have a very good start here, with a gorgeous image, but there might be a little more you can do. Randall did pull out a little more detail, so going back to the RAW file could reveal more.
Keep in mind, when you choose a different camera profile, you aren't looking for the one that "looks best" right out of the box, but one that reveals the most detail in the reds. Inspect the image at 100%. Keeping the exposure under control can also be key, and taming the color temp / white balance can make a huge difference. All this should be done in the RAW conversion -- once the color tones are glued into a rasterized PS file, there is a limit to what you can do. Desaturation is generally not the best option, but can work sometimes.
Then you work on the colors to punch them up, both in RAW and in PS, but adding saturation isn't the first thing to try.
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Randall,
No mistakes, I appreciate any feedback. These guy's here are very vibrant right now and the shot straight out of the camera looked pretty much like what my eyes saw which really is my personal goal. I was a little concerned however that after cropping and being able to see good feather detail the very vibrant red's, looked almost blown if that's correct terminology.
With the tips, I was able to bring a bit more detail in those areas of concern.
I have a lot to learn yet in post processing and have only been using Lightroom for about 3 years. I just started playing with Photoshop CC this week and REALLY have a lot to learn. Luckily a family friend is a professional photographer and teaches Photoshop classes so I plan taking a couple.
Thank you all!
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BPN Member
Hi David! Hopefully not too late to the "party"! These guys are absolutely a striking red... I believe you did a fine job of capturing it. Randall's pulled detail out, but the bird seems a bit dull. I'm not sure exactly how to do this (maybe Diane can help).... but both images look a bit "orange" to me, compared to what I see in the yard here. And now I will just speculate.... since the bird has some "brown" to it, perhaps experiment with the "yellow" slider...dropping it back? Alternatively, I'm OK hearing that my theory is all wet! I'm here to learn to... so thanks for your post!
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Sandy, thanks for the feedback. Is it possible a little orange tint could be from the early morning sunrise? Also, I hate to say it but I am not using a calibrated monitor although I 'think' it's close. A calibration tool is on my wish list.
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BPN Member
Originally Posted by
David Bose
Sandy, thanks for the feedback. Is it possible a little orange tint could be from the early morning sunrise? Also, I hate to say it but I am not using a calibrated monitor although I 'think' it's close. A calibration tool is on my wish list.
Could be! Looks like the sun was over your right shoulder. I was shooting a Snowy Owl last week at sundown... beautiful light, but the Owl looked more like a "golden owl". Did reduce the yellow channel about 50% +/-, which helped quite a bit. Not sure if I will post it here... fairly large crop so the IQ probably isn't up to par.
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Forum Participant
Hi David
Welcome to the forum. You have a nice picture here. I can't comment what tone of red the bird should be as I have never seen one. I like Randall's last repost the best as it seem to show more detail with a colour similar to your original post. His first looked very orange to me. I'm sure you will learn lots from the forums and I hope to see more of your images.
Iain
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For shooting with a canon in your OP the reds don't seem too blown. I have found that the male cardinals always seem to have very hot reds in the same area beneath the eye (Cheek area). I shoot with the canon 7D and it seems every male I have photographed has the same issue. For those that have never seen one these birds are really this red. The females are never a problem. It is strange how canon has trouble capturing the reds properly.
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Just wanted to add...I think your first mistake was with your exposure compensation. You
should've went in the opposite direction...more like somewhere between -1/3 and -1.
With the sun being out and using a Canon, at the very least, you shouldn't have had any
exposure compensation. But with the reds (or even other bright colors like yellow), the
negative compensation would come into play.
Normally in situations like this I start off with -1 and work from that.
Doug
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Thanks Doug, I did think about that as well after the fact of course. As the sun was coming up I should have dropped my exposure compensation.
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BPN Member
Randall's second RP Looks excellent to me ... reds look more natural, retained good detail.
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Sandy, I agree. That is one area of LR I have not really worked in much in the past but I need to learn to use it when needed.
