Greetings! This picture was taken with the Canon 7D and 100-400 at 400mm. iso1000, 1/800, f7.1
I will be glad to hear anything constructive from anyone at all. Many thanks for your time and your trouble:
more manifestations of the compulsive love-of-alar are seeable at http://www.smallbirdsongs.com which is an ode to the common birds and a work-in-progress
Jack, I very much like the concept. If your image quality would hold up, personally, i could see a slightly (note the word slightly) tighter crop. The blacks on the bird are blocked which can likely be improved in processing. Feet showing through the water are a nice litte addition.
Thanks Grace. I wouldn't say no to a small slab off the top. In this sort of light with this sort of smallish in the frame bird, I never cared much whether or not "the blacks were blocked" (funny phrase) although perhaps I should? People rave about that NIK software, perhaps as a Photoshop plug-in? Is that what you would use? Hello! Yes: feet and water droplets.
This is really working for me, Jack, and quite unique. I pulled it into PS, and I took a little off the bottom and it made it even stronger in my opinion. Well seen and executed.
Thank you, Marina. I hadn't considered taking any off the bottom, but I'll look into that. I'll ask you also: are you a fan of that NIK business? Truly (and I'm not being difficult) the "blocked blacks" don't bother me, but such a piece of software might be a nice arrow for the old quiver, as the kids say. Is that NIK whatever-it-is the best stuff for shadow and highlight work if I'm no genius? I open this question to ONE AND ALL. Perhaps I should pose it in a more appropriate forum. Yes, I can do that!
Very nice Jack. This works for me aswell, I like how the bird is situated within the image. I agree that more details in the blacks would make this image better. Good work and thanks for sharing
Jack, I really like this image. I feel it could benefit with a run through the tonal contrast filter in Nik's color efex pro. It would bring out all the needed detail in the snow, especially at the top of the image.
Thanks all. And thanks Alan - I have just now started a separate thread in the "Digital Photography Workflow" forum RE Nik's plug-ins, and people's methods of detail recovery, etc.
Nice composition and a good idea. The blacks need lifting a little and maybe a tad more detail in the snow. Regards the Nik filters I a haven't tried them, I have not found Photoshop to be less than adequate. I have Topaz detail but don't really rate it that much.
I'd like to see a version with a little off the top. The blacks are not so much blocked up (although close) as lacking in detail. I can't be sure if they are blocked up because you didn't embed the profile, so I can only guess at one when I open it in PS. If I guess wrong, the histogram is not accurate. For posting on the web always convert to sRGB, and in order for the widest range of browsers to display it correctly, embed the profile when you save it. See a tutorial in Educational Resources.
Nik's Detail Extractor is amazing, and can go beyond what you can do in LR/ACR, but first you need to bring the full tonal range into PS from the raw converter, without darks blocked up or lights blown out.
Diane, it's very much sRGB, so that's not the issue. I didn't embed? My apologies. Will look into that. As for the crop, indeed it should be slight, nothing too drastic. Thank you for the suggestions RE Nik, etc. I appreciate everyone's time, truly.
Now that's a tough shot to expose for with all that white and just a bit of black. I like the concept and the look of the Frame. I would say to take some off the top not the bottom. Yes to trying to get some more details out of the blacks
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I do own the NIK plug-ins but, frankly, no longer use them. I do everything in ACR and PS now. If I had to do it over again, I probably wouldn't have purchased the package. That's not to say it doesn't do a good job, but it's not the only way to skin a cat.
I like the small-in-frame idea here. Some good suggestions above. I might have used just a touch of the Shadow Protection and Highlight Protection sliders in Nikon's Capture NX2. I assume the Canon conversion software has something similar. I tried NIK but have reverted to several of the Topaz products for detail extraction.