Takeoff heading north

[kevin Hice]

Took this photo end of February and was surprised that the migration had started.Everything was still frozen this was the only lake around that was open.It had a aerator going keeping a small area of water open. I was concentrating on ducks coming and going.I was off guard when the swans took off and was lucky to capture a few frames I wish I had more room a little big in the frame Critiques welcome.



Canon5d mark11 300 2.8 2x teleconverter Tv 2000 Iso400 exposure compensation +1/ 1/3
600 5.6

Dpp Photoshop elements Cropped leveled Horizon sharpened at 134 was that enough

[Iain Barker]

Hi Kevin,
Your exposure and sharpness look perfect and I like your pano crop and the full extended wing touching the water. I wish the bird wasn't heading away from the camera but it is still a nice image.

TFS
Iain

[Randall Farhy]

Hi Kevin- Good timing on this one, both feet in the air with wing in water. Pano works, is there a little more room available to the top? Also, what time of day was this taken and did you apply a wb adjustment? ? Reason I ask -it looks like something is awry with the color balance. There appears to be a green cast directly under the bird and the far wing shadow area shows a strong blue saturation. Sharpness looks natural, no halos.

[David Kenny]

Looks sharp to me. Exposure looks great. Looks like you were able to retain all the details in the whites. Not sure if you cropped any off the top but I feel this photo would benefit from a little more room up there. Great job.

[kevin Hice]

No more room all around. At the top dirty ice and bad looking trees and brush in front of swan more waterfowl too busy . I squeezed all I could get.I see what you mean by the blue under the wing I think it is natural reflection off the water .Shot early morning water is dappled and shows the reflection of the sun.Wb set to auto in camera.

[Randall Farhy]

Hmm, it would appear that the AWB tried to correct for the early morning warmth, creating the blue and mild green shifts. As an experiment, might try going back to the RAW- add some warmth( Yellow +8-+15/ Red +6-+12) and reduce exposure .33-.48 to compensate?

[kevin Hice]

Thanks Randall I do see more of the blue than when I was working on it. But I am on a different monitor too thanks for the other suggestions.Question I have is what is the best way to final sharpen .I sharpen in Dpp originally.Then I go to photoshop elements .I used a mask and created it with the magnetic lasso. Is their a easier way because its hard to go around small detail like feathers.I am talking about sharpening the subject separate from the background Thanks

[Iain Barker]

Hi kevin I don't know if its available in elements but in photoshop I use quick mask then refine edges. One of Dianes articles above shows how to use quick mask.

Sent from my GT-I8190N using Tapatalk

[Diane Miller]

Fot sharpening, you can often get a good-enough selection with the Quick Selection tool, if you have it in Elements. (In PS it's bundled with the Magic Wand tool.)

Kevin, you caught a great moment here! You could add some canvas at the top and fill it in -- another of the stickies at the top of this forum.

I long to see just a little more detail in the whites. Nik Color Efex Pro is a plug-in that will work with Elements and its Detail Extractor is excellent for that.

[Steve Kaluski]

Kevin if you adjust both the Cyan & Blue the colours get back to a more 'neutral' look and removes the colour cast too. Also a fundamental issue is that the image does not carry the correct embedded colour profile, (sRGB) so your image may not be displayed to it's full potential. Applying a basic mid tone adjustment pulls back some more subtle detail & depth within the plumage and retains the rather bright conditions.

Just my take.

[Diane Miller]

Steve made a good point for a basic correction. This image might also be a good case for using a luminosity mask to mask a Curves to darken the lightest tones, maybe a second or third order one, to limit it more to the whites, although there is often more spill-over to mid and darker tones than I expect or want. "Darkening" the lights by pulling down a curve (or moving the middle slider in Levels) will bring out more detail in them.

I got interrupted and didn't note in my first reply that the brownish tones on the water look strange -- both an odd color and very flat. I wonder if going back to the RAW adjustment could fix that?

[Sandy Witvoet]

Wonderful capture! (all has been said above re: blues/greens/cyan).... The running "take-off" feet are GREAT as are the water droplets. HA is ok with me, especially with catch-light way to (our) right... gives the feeling of an intense lift-off.

[kevin Hice]

Thanks Sandy for the comments

[kevin Hice]

Thanks Dianne For the comments and help I will be honest all the post editing is over my head I understand what you are saying but me implementing them is another thing. I bet I spent Two hours trying to upload this image because of using a layer .I had to flatten the image to resize it . It really can get to you.I have another image of a swan with the same color conditions I will work on it and post to see if I do any better.I also shot some ducks that same morning.And all the pictures have that same brown or golden sun reflection on the water. I think it may be do to the angle as I was laying down.

[kevin Hice]

Thanks Steve for the comments and I will check out the colour profile .Not sure what is happening their as I have had that problem before.I have it embedded in dpp. What can I do to make sure it is embedded and could I be losing that when I go to elements. Thanks again

[kevin Hice]

Thanks Iain for the suggestions

[Diane Miller]

Yes, you have to check a box to embed the profile when you make the JPEG to post. Anita Bower had an issue with that and figured it out -- I don't use Elements but I'd suggest you PM her. She can be found in OOTB.

It's all a learning curve but so worth it!

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Kevin, I will try to keep it simple based on your reply about things going over your head, just remember we have all been there.

I have no idea how Elements works or what it offers and the limitation, however here goes as I can only base it on PS.

You have your final file cropped and sharpened ready to post. It should have the same Working space as your camera Adobe RGB
If you have a similar header bar as PS then you should have the word EDIT in there, click that and 'hopefully' a dropdown menu should appear scroll down to Convert to Profile.
When this window pops up it should say Working Space Adobe RGB, underneath it should say Destination space you need to change to change it to sRGB.... this will embed the correct profile and the easiest way to ensure the file is correct.

Not sure if you then have the option Save for web in Elements?

A little out of date now, as the KB & size of image has changed, but check this out.

http://www.birdphotographers.net/for...-for-Web-in-PS

[Diane Miller]

If you're shooting RAW (I assume so since you're using DPP) the color space in the camera shouldn't matter -- it's for in-camera JPEGs. But DPP should give you a choice of what color space to save the image in, since it saves a TIFF for further editing. Elements will have a choice somewhere for it's working color space and you want that to match the one you're using for DPP output. sRGB (the lowest color gamut) is the default for many apps, based on the fact that lower-end users will not want to make changes to any settings (or even be aware of them). Adobe RGB will give you a wider color gamut and is a better choice.

So assuming you are using AdobeRGB for DPP output and Elements working space, you should convert to sRGB for web output, as it will appear more consistent on the wide range of monitors and browsers out there. But don't convert your master file, just the output JPEG. If Elements has a Save for Web choice, it will do the conversion and flattening for you. But there should be boxes in the dialog to check to tell it to do that output space, AND to embed the profile.