Bar-tailed godwit (Limosa lapponica)
I am having a problem with processing of this picture.
This picture was underexposed at about 1. It was taken just after dawn when the sun was still in some clouds.
When processing in ACR i try to level the histogram to the right to have it on the whole scale from left to the right.
But when doing that the background becomes to light. Anyway this is the best i could do. Maybe this image is too much underxposed and can't be fixed.
It was shot at ISO 640.
What do you think about this image?
Hi Tomasz,
Underexposure happens to the best of us sometimes. I think this one could be fixed easily. It looks very sharp with a nice pose and great head angle.
I'm not sure how you adjusted the sliders but I would bring the basic exposure slider up, then go down with Highlights and up (to the right) with Shadows and see if you get a good balance. Then I'd tweak the Temp and Tint a little and then go to HSL and see if a little work there would give you a look you like. It may be that the adjustments you did brought up too much contrast and therefore saturation. The Shadows and Highlights sliders are amazing in their capabilities. If things begin to look too tonally flat, a little bit of Clarity and Vibrance can bring back a natural look.
Would love to know if this helps you.
When you say "But when doing that the background becomes to light" it sounds like you're
doing your adjusting to the whole image?
If so, put the bird on its own layer. This way when the active layer you're working
on is the bird, only the bird will be affected. When the background layer is active,
only the background will change.
This is something I do with all of my images.
Doug
You should do as much as you can in the raw converter before going to PS though, and then bring the image in as 16 bits. In many cases (all but the most extreme examples) you can do wonders with the Shadows and Highlights adjustments in Lightroom / ACR, which will give you the most detail to work with in lights and darks. Of course, balance those adjustments with the other sliders in the Basic panel. Then you will have the best tonal information to work with in PS.
The layers approach is fine, but a more flexible alternative is to select for the bird or BG and do an adjustment layer which will automatically be masked by the selection. You can make it a Curves, Levels, or any other adjustment you like, and you can later edit the mask if it isn't perfect. Sometimes after doing an adjustment, imperfections in the mask/selection show up, and they are very easy to fix.
Thanks for all your suggestions. I did all that but when the histogram is right and image looks ok the noise level is too big in my opinion. Well that's probably because if it wasn't properly exposed and shot at ISO 640 on 7D which makes it about 1600 when adjusting in ACR. 1600 ISO on 7D doesn't look very good. In my opinion 1250 is the max i can go with 7D. In case of that picture if it was properly exposed the result would be a little better and maybe i would get correct exposure at 1250 which would be good enough in terms of noise level.
Hi Tomasz, I really like the image love the sand on the beak and the Godwit looks very nice. I pulled the image into PS and used a curve adjustment to pull up the mid tones just a bit which brighten the mid tones more then the other tones. Is this closer to what you wanted to present as far as the godwit in concern. Also you did not assign a profile when you saved the image make sure you assigned the sRGB profile while saving for the web this will ensure all viewers see the image the same. If you still find the BG to bright it is an easy fix in PS to apply the adjustment to the subject only.
Don Lacy
You don't take a photograph, you make it - Ansel Adams
There are no rules for good photographs, there are only good photographs - Ansel Adams
http://www.witnessnature.net/
https://500px.com/lacy
In ACR or LR, you can simply pull the Shadows slider to the right, which will lighten the dark bird, which is what I did here. The sky can be darkened a bit as desired by going to the HSL panel and darkening Blues. The bird became a bit more saturated by that move, so I reduced Saturation just a little -- I don't know what color the bird should be, or how saturated, but that can be adjusted as desired.
I've embedded the profile here.
Thanks to all of you. I will see if i can improve my originial image using your tips.
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