Splendid Fairy Wren.

[Ray Walker]

Hi all.
This is my first post here.
7D, 400L, f/7.1, s/s1/125, iso 400, tripod.

[Glennie Passier]

Welcome Ray! Yet another Aussie.

What a fabulous first post. The beautiful little wren in his shades of electric blue and violet. I love the pose on the banksia cone and the lovely BG. I feel he is a little bright on the top of his head...and just a tiny bit of blurring on the tip of his tail. Knowing how these little guys dart around, you've done very, very well! Is that a spider web, or whiskers in his beak? Looking at your techs, I would have to say you maybe could have a faster shutter speed?

I'm new to critiquing Ray, so take everything I say with a grain of salt. I have learnt so much since I've been on the BPN ETL. Still a long way to go.

Can't wait to see more.

[Warren Spreng]

Excellent Ray, love the perch and the BG is very nice. As Glennie mentioned the top of the head might benefit from bringing the whites down just a little but not a major issue at all as I still see details on top. What a gorgeous bird!

[Diane Miller]

Hi Ray, and welcome!! A nice little beauty!

Good points raised above. What was your processing -- that's as important as capture these days.

Look like motion blur on the tail -- balancing shutter speed, ISO and aperture drives us all crazy.

[Ray Walker]

Thanks everyone.
Diane, my processing skills leave a little to be desired. I use Gimp, and aren't that good at it. My pics usually get cropped and sharpened and thats about it.

[Diane Miller]

If you put that in each post it will help with critique. Also more specs --- is that the "classic" 400 f/5.6? Most of us can't remember who uses what software but it can make a difference on the final image.

I'd say you're doing pretty well here, but does Gimp let you tone down highlights without blocking up shadows? (I haven't used it.)

[Ray Walker]

but does Gimp let you tone down highlights without blocking up shadows? (I haven't used it.)

It probably does Diane, but I have limited P/S skills. I really need some one to teach me, as I find it hard to understand being from the older generation..

[Diane Miller]

No excuse!! I'm 72. And was shooting film from about 1960 to 2000. I will admit, this stuff isn't easy. But it is SOOO worth it!

[Arthur Morris]

Hi Ray, If you can figure out how to reduce the Saturation a bit this would be even more splendid. Welcome to BPN. a

[Diane Miller]

I agree with artie's comment on saturation -- it's a little on the high side. When I see a comment indicating an image may be too saturated, I open it in Photoshop to see if there is a missing profile. For many viewers (depending on monitor and browser) that will make an image over-saturated. But when I do that I see your embedded profile is AdobeRGB, so that's not the case here. That is a good working space but you should convert to sRGB (not assign) your exported JPEG for the largest number of web viewers to have the best representation of colors.

A properly calibrated and profiled monitor is also necessary for the best processing.

Here's some information:

http://www.birdphotographers.net/for...es-for-the-Web

http://www.birdphotographers.net/for...tly-on-the-Web

Look forward to seeing more from you!

[Glennie Passier]

The little wren is, in fact, a very bright electric violet and blue. The colour of the bird posted above actually looks a little undersaturated. The harsh light has washed out his colour a bit.

I can see I still have a whole lot to learn about colour profiles. I have changed my ACR "space" to ProPhoto RGB". Have I goofed up here?

[Arthur Morris]

The little wren is, in fact, a very bright electric violet and blue. The colour of the bird posted above actually looks a little undersaturated. The harsh light has washed out his colour a bit.

I can see I still have a whole lot to learn about colour profiles. I have changed my ACR "space" to ProPhoto RGB". Have I goofed up here?

I wrote this on a Wood Duck image in Avian this morning: at times, images of brightly colored birds come out of the camera over-saturated..... I know that this species is almost fluorescent in real life but that is not what you have achieved here.... a

[Diane Miller]

I suspect the appearance of oversaturation comes from the contrast with the bright BG. In any raw converter I've seen, you can deal with saturation (and hue) of different color ranges individually, so I'd amend the suggestion to just working on the yellows here. (Greens are usually mostly yellows.) Then have at making the bird whatever is natural by working on the blues and violets. It isn't unusual to need to work on colors separately. And a good place to start with ACR or LR is to look first at the different profiles in the Camera Calibration section. Some will be awful (as will some of the white balance presets) and some will subdue things so you can then tweak them up appropriately if the default Adobe Standard is too strong. It was all meant for tweaking to suit, not for a quick and easy canned result.

ProPhoto working space is good if you understand its limits. For instance, you can create saturated colors that your monitor can't show and that our eyes can't see. I recommend staying in AdobeRGB until you get into graduate school in color management. It will likely be an exotic printer that can print much outside the AdobeRGB gamut, and in a side-by-side comparison I doubt you would see much difference. Just be sure you have the color management policies set correctly in Edit > Color Settings -- the three checkmarks for profiles mismatches, missing profiles and ask when pasting. In the RGB dropdown above that, which option you choose is just a convenience that will show as the default. You can choose which one you need when the warning comes up.

And of course the space you choose in ACR needs to match the working space you have in PS -- at the top of the Color Settings dialog.

[Ray Walker]

Thanks for the interest everyone, but you have left me for dead with the tech stuff. The pic looks as close as you can get to what the bird looks like in real life imo.. I haven't touched "saturation ", as I don't know how too.
I sure appreciate all the advice, its just that I don't know where too start to utilize it.

[Diane Miller]

I did a quick internet search on "how to use GIMP" and came up with a number of hits. I don't have time to look into any of them, but I get the impression it isn't really designed for basic photo editing. I don't remember if you said why you are using it, but I'd suggest you might look into Photoshop Elements, which is about $75 I think, and has a basic raw processor and image-editing capabilities that will relate to most of the information you'll see here.

[Ray Walker]

Thanks Diane. I use it because its the only one that is compatible with Ubuntu ( Lynx), which our young bloke set up for us. We can't use Windows or any other system.

[Diane Miller]

OK -- all our systems have limitations. Remind us of that in future posts and we'll try to respond appropriately, although not many folks here may understand GIMP. Maybe the few who do would offer some help.

There must be useful help online for basic things like saturation of different colors.

[Ray Walker]

although not many folks here may understand GIMP. Maybe the few who do would offer some help.

That will well and truly be appreciated , as I don't understand it that well.I know how to crop and sharpen...thats about it.

[Diane Miller]

You should start a thread in the Digital Photography Workflow forum, as more people might see it there than in this thread. There are a number of tutorials online, and there should be some sort of documentation with the program. Sometimes there is a Help menu.

Good luck with it!

[Stuart Philpott]

Hi Ray,merry christmas. Ray I am very new haven't yet submitted my first image in ETL. Ray I am very much learning and don't have any post as of yet other than DPP. I'm very much set on trying to get my camera skills up to par before venturing much further into post, that said,I can see how important it will be though,so I have been digging about trying to give myself some grounding,I found some tutorials on gimp as part of my searches and homework,they might be of use to you:

http://blog.patdavid.net/p/getting-around-in-gimp.html

Ray tis a wonderful first picture please bare in mind I am so new aswell,I like the background and the way that sits against the colours of the wren and love the open beak I'd imagine in full song,just lovely mate.such a stunning bird. Ha we only have a little brown wren here,mind I adore them their song is breathtaking ,so loud for such a tiny thing.
take care

Stu

[Diane Miller]

Gianluca Molina has posted a quick tutorial on GIMP. It is at the top of this forum.

[Ray Walker]

Thanks Stuart and Diane..