Pair of Red Legged Partridge

[William Dickson]

Canon 5D Mk3
f/4 500mm with 1.4
f/5.6
1/2000
ISO 1600

On Saturday, as I was going to the Glen to photograph the Red Grouse, I saw these two little beauties, sitting on a wall, they stayed long enough for me to get a shot from the car window. It was quite misty. I had to 'remove' quite a bit of mist from the RAW file, with the new dehaze tool. Not sure about it though.

Thanks for looking and the comments on the Red Grouse images. Much appreciated and helps a lot.

Will

[Mike Poole]

Great image of the 2 birds together Will - unusual and I like the poses.

First though was it looked quite flat, but then I read your words below which explained the reason. Have you tried a little more of a contrast boost? I think it's worth trying a few things as this isn't a shot you see often and may be worth the effort.

Mike

[William Dickson]

Thanks for that Mike. I started over and over again with processing. I think that dehaze tool adds too much contrast, and noise, making it more difficult to work with. It does work though, as there was quite a lot of mist. I will post the original. I really liked the pose and BG thats why I worked quite a bit on it, but still not happy with the outcome.

Will

[Mike Poole]

Pretty impressive from that original Will!

Had a quick 5 minutes, probably (actually that should be definitely) overdid things but here we go....

[William Dickson]

Thanks for that Mike. Your one looks too contrasty and 'painterly' on my screen. I found it quite difficult to work with, but I did like the capture.

Will

[Mike Poole]

No worries, it was a bit rough and ready

[Geoffrey Montagu]

Personally, I prefer the original with the mist, William. The mood created by the mist and the lichen covered rock wall give these two a unique quality.




Geoffrey

[William Dickson]

Looking at it, again closely, I think you have a point there Geoffrey. I will work on that later

Thanks

Will

[Marina Scarr]

I have to say that I think the original is pretty special with a few tweaks here and there to give it a bit more punch.

[Gerhard Weldhagen]

Doesn't`t matter what you do this one`s going to be tough to work with. The mist is both adding atmosphere and preventing pin-point sharpness at the same time, you will have to sacrifice one or the other.

[Karl Egressy]

Great opportunity and shot, Will. I like the firs version the best but the original has potential as is IMO.

[keith mitchell]

Don't think I would try to change the original a lot, certainly try to keep the misty feel to the image along with the wet undersides to the birds which made the them jump up on the wall to dry, may be a few tweaks that's all, just my personal view of course Will,nice job.

Keith.

[Bill Dix]

A wonderful opportunity, and you took advantage under tough conditions. I love the two birds and their respective poses, and the great comp. IMO just a slight - but only slight - contrast boost will help. NR is generally to be avoided on the subject, but there have been times when I've had some success with Topaz DeNoise, if using it judiciously and carefully balancing the degree of noise reduction with the degree of detail recovery (two related sliders in Topaz DN) so as not to sacrifice much detail. Just something to think about.

[William Dickson]

Thanks for the comments, I will work on this file, and try different versions as advised.

Cheers

Will

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Will, I think the screen capture of the Raw has great atmosphere, the OP & RP just looks way off and doesn't really convey the true nature of the scene. I would look to getting you white & black point addressed then start from there. based on what you posted i feel there isn't too much PP required.

Like the setting & location, conditions like this can be challenging, but a great source of learning, if you used ETTR then pulling things back isn't a problem as you have the data.

TFS
Steve

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Will, I quite like your misty image, and with a few tweaks, Im sure you could produce a winner. If you have the opportunity again, maybe a bit more exposure comp to bring out more detail and the colours, and then tweak from there. Easier said than done I know.