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Thread: The Poetic Time / Sandhill Cranes at the Bosque del Apache

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    BPN Member Jim Keener's Avatar
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    Default The Poetic Time / Sandhill Cranes at the Bosque del Apache

    Greetings,

    I would like to go to the Bosque del Apache this afternoon or to the Bernardo Wildlife Area, which is about 30 miles north of there. But. There is the possibility that I-25 will be closed because of snow. So I'll continue to work with photographs I made last week.

    There is a time between when the birds first leave the water and when they bring their legs up to enhance aerodynamic flight that I call the poetic time. There are usually small herds (4-8 birds) and their striving upwards and grouping can make for beautiful compositions. As this often happens just after sunrise, exposure and noise can be problematic.

    This composition has problems. The bush just to the right of the leading bird, the hidden head of the trailing bird, for example. But I like the triangle and the curved diagonal on the right that lends what I think of dimensionality. And I am just beginning to learn the difference between a pretty picture and a good photograph.

    All that aside, I'm asking for your help to make this as good a photograph as it can be, given its limitations.

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    1DX, 500mm f/4, 1/2000, f/4, ISO 4000. Tripod/gimbal mounted.
    Lightroom: increased clarity, lights, highlights. Decreased darks, shadows. Photoshop: NR using Dfine, sharpening with surface blur, vignette using Color Efex 4.

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    Right off hand, I'd say it's excellent! I'd consider a crop from the top to get rid of half or more of the dark area, to put more emphasis on the bird.

    I'm out of time right now for more comments -- I'll see what others say and be back tomorrow.

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    Hello Jim. First up, I love the eloquence of your posts and comments to others posts. You do a very good job of painting the picture with words.

    You have already pointed out some things that maybe problematic with this image. I love the composition of the triangle, but agree with Diane (of course!) that a tad could be taken off the top and maybe a little more room in front of the birds, if you have it. Is there a blue shadow cast on the wings? Not being familiar with these birds, I don't know if they are in fact, blue. I would like to see a little more detail in the front most bird's head, or at least eye.

    This is a very "artsy" (not to be confused with "artie", though it's right down his alley) image. I wish it was in my collection! Well done. Keep them coming!

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    BPN Member Jim Keener's Avatar
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    Glennie, thank you for your kind words and useful suggestions. There is room for the crop changes you suggest, as the crop is somewhat tight. But I'm looking at the image again and again, and prefer the original crop in front of the birds. And that concerns me, especially as the people who know considerably more than I do prefer the looser crop. And the blue. I saw it, and thought it was just the nature of the shadow. But now I don't think so. It's not in the RAW file, and was introduced early in processing. I'll work on it. I wonder if it has anything to do with the limitation of the sRGB colorspace. The detail in the eye area! Yes. That's the kind of thing I'll work on to not let slip by me. Thanks.

    These changes might take me some time, as I'm learning process as well.

    Again, thank you for the help.

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    Jim, I think the blue cast can be easily fixed. Diane will have the answer for your Lightroom. Diane has advised of some very simple, effective ways of neutralising. I don't believe it is anything to do with the sRGB colourspace.

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    I can only agree with what the others have said re the crop. The first thing that hit me was the blue cast. Not knowing the bird i did some research to confirm that it was a cast and not the birds colour. I think that Glennie found the correct word to describe the photo, artsy. I like it a lot.
    Cheers Frank.

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    BPN Member Jim Keener's Avatar
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    Thanks everyone. Glennie, I'm certain you're correct about the blue cast, and I think I've found a way to work with it: create a mask layer in PS, quick select the affected areas, drop the blue out and go from there. What do you think?

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    Grat moment and color!

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    The blue cast is reflected color from the sky and is easily fixed. Color, like tonality, is not fixed in a raw capture, it is only interpreted by the converter. (Until then, the raw data is not an image file.) LR/ACR and other converters will display an image initially using the color temp from the camera, although it can be changed with no degradation to the file. And if the camera was set to Auto WB, it is a guess that will change according to the colors included in the image. You would get a different initial WB if you zoomed out to include more of the reddish hills or zoomed in to just have the birds filling the frame. It's amazing how good it usually is.

    I'll often look at the Auto setting and then tweak with the two Temp and Tint sliders to taste. But after an overall balance it's not unusual to see blues like this in shadows. We don't normally see them, as our brains correct for (neutralize) them to a large extent. But the camera does record them. The easy fix is to go to the HSL section and lower the saturation on the Blue slider. You can usually do that globally, but if it affects other areas like sky, I prefer to go to PS where I can mask the effect a little better. (You can mask it in LR by using the Adjustment Brush, but most people find PS easier and more flexible.)

    I often leave some of the blues like that, as I find them artistic. But then I'm a big fan of Maxfield Parrish. For a more accurate image, I would neutralize them.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Jim Keener View Post
    Thanks everyone. Glennie, I'm certain you're correct about the blue cast, and I think I've found a way to work with it: create a mask layer in PS, quick select the affected areas, drop the blue out and go from there. What do you think?
    That would work but it could be very difficult to select the areas without leaving halos. You might get away with a global adjustment -- many ways to skin a cat with all this stuff. That way, the range of color covered by the blue saturation slider is doing the selecting for you.

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    Great lesson, thanks Diane. And as I'm trying to learn, I'll use several methods, just to put those arrows in my quiver. Lots of work to do; lots of learning to get through, and I'm grateful for all of it.

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    A great capture of good wing position on so many birds at once Jim---often difficult to achieve and well portrayed here. I'm with you on having room above the birds as the wings naturally lift the eye skyward and I think you need room for the rising birds to move into.

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    Wow, Diane! That's why the blue is only on the upper part of the wings. Okay. Beautiful lesson. And I like that you gave me options. I think I'm ready to for forward with this.

    Crop: I'll play with it. I've brought the top edge down more than halfway, based on Diane's initial take. I like the distancing. One thing came up when I did that. The line between the dark and light bands isn't level. And when I make the dark part narrower, it emphasizes the angle, making the image look off. Or off more. The other minor issue, of course is the room left on the right of the image. I like square photographs, and this one in particular seemed to fit a square well. One of the effects from it is to make the birds static, and that, though an affectation, works for me. But I can understand why going with a more dynamic composition would please others. So I'll play some more with it.

    Blue hue: I like the idea of playing around with that, too.

    And, again thanks, Glennie, I'm eager to get to work on the eye of the in-focus bird.

    Anything else?

    I'm grateful for everything up to now, because I'm getting what I had hoped for. Lots of learning and the expectation of a better photograph.
    Last edited by Jim Keener; 12-27-2015 at 04:16 PM. Reason: Change: "underside" to "upper part".

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    BPN Member Jim Keener's Avatar
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    Bob, thank you for your kinds words. It means a lot to me, having visited your online gallery. An impressive body of work.

    On another note, I'm learning where the blue in the shadows is introduced, or increased. When I increase the shadows sledder in the Basics panel in LR.

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    It's always frustrating when there are two parts of a shot that the viewer would expect to be horizontal and they don't match. (A receding lake shore is a common example.) In this case it might help to split the difference in the rotation and maybe lighten the darker BG to make it less of a strong transition to the grassy area.

    Another solution that works with some subjects is to do an Edit > Transform > Distort and pull one corner.

    I love to see the enthusiasm for experimenting that has been here in ETL lately!

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    Happy new year, light writers.

    I played with a number of variations and settled with these changes:
    - Crop: dropped top, added to right, lightened dark band at top, and averaged rotation for leveling.
    - Blue shadow: dropped blue saturation
    - Sharpening head: lightened eye and surrounding area, increased that clarity; lightened the background surrounding the head a bit to help project the head off the BG.



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    Excellent!!

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    I absolutely love it.
    Cheers Frank.

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    You've done a great job here. Looks good to me.

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    Thanks, team. I'm learning a lot.

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    A fine image Jim--great detail and a beautiful BG.

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    Thanks, Bob.

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    Great final image Jim.

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