This juvenile pied buther bird has been visiting my yard with his two siblings. As he gets older he will moult the dull brown/black and become a striking black and white. (something to practice exposure on!) Both sexes are identical in plumage. The male is slightly larger. They get their name from their aggressive hunting. They will eat anything they can catch from little birds to frogs. Often they will hang their catch in the fork of a tree branch, hence the name. Butcher bird.
Late afternoon and overcast.
Canon 5D2
Sigma 150-600mm sport @600mm
ISO 1000
1/200 sec @ f6.3 (I was struggling with the light to get any faster than 1/200 sec)
Tripod
In ACR - Highlight slider -100 Shadow silder +100 - All saturation sliders moved to the left...desaturated, especially purple and magenta.
In PSCS6 - Curves layer adjustment, H/S layer adjustment on BG and perch, vibrance layer. Topaz NR over BG.Saved as Jpeg and smart sharpened 20% radius .03 for posting. His head looked a bit crunchy, so that was omitted in the sharpening.
Glennie was the Exposure out, it seems very aggressive in the amounts? If you are doing the above then something is wrong and you will bring up so much noise within the shadows aiding a 'crunchy' look. Get that Histogram right, if you have to 'pinch' it then it should be very little, compressing it shows that you have limited data and by 'pinching it' you are compressing things, NOT GOOD, get that Histogram/Exposure as far to the right.
All saturation sliders moved to the left...desaturated
I wouldn't, I would move them individually if you want need/to, however it's not just Saturation, you may find a tweak in one of the Hue sliders, or Luminance, or all three works, it just depends. Remember, what you take from one, you will need to perhaps give back with the other and it might not be correct, things can be a balancing act.
Steve
PS Do you have Dropbox, if so, shoot me over the RAW, not a Tiff or JPEG.
Hi Glennie, good news, the exposure is very good, the bad news is, it isn't sharp!
Which way you go colourwise cold/warm, more saturation/less is down to you as you were there I wasn't. Minimal changes in Exp module, slight tweaks in Curves for some whites & darks and certainly NO Levels. Get your sharpness right in the RAW, hence fast SS and move the Focus point, then minimal work within PP, also think about your format, avoid Landscape then going Portrait, you throw so much info away.
Well, that looks a whole lot better! That's really quite amazing Steve; when I did the PP in ACR it had quite a magenta cast...and I see none at all here. In fact, you've got the birds colour exactly!
I'm a bit unco with a tripod, and for me to turn the camera from landscape to portrait on the fly is not an easy job. But like everything, practice. I should have guessed the bird would go up the branch and should have been ready to get that at portrait. At least I got the exposure almost right.
Thank you so much for taking the time to show me what it could have been!
Glennie, does the lens not have a ring/collar, as you mount the lens to the tripod, but the collar allows you to rotate, then you lock it into position.
Sort you WB, (I'm guess where it might be), then logically go through the steps, from your RAW I dropped the Exp by a third of a stop, the beak and other whites had marginal highlights blown, so adjust the Highlights, Whites & Blacks (-20, -30, +5), not bad. Also only a few Dust bunnies, great. 1/200 I think is too slow, even on a tripod. The Raw needs to be sharp, yes at this size you can make anything look good, but the key is a sharp image to start with. then you can 'Colour manage' accordingly, Exp to PS for some final refinements etc. The OP looks to dark, contrasty and loss of what detail you had, there's no life in the image.
Overall I think you are reading the histogram well, you just to to refine the PP and keep a light hand, if you ramp up the Darks/Blacks you are in for trouble.
Glennie, does the lens not have a ring/collar, as you mount the lens to the tripod, but the collar allows you to rotate, then you lock it into position.
Yes. It has a ring/collar...I'm just unco!
I did notice the blown whites on the beak and wings. I saw the dust bunnies. Yep. I think I always over process. I just don't know when to stop. I remember on this image, I was trying to tone down the dark OOF blob on top of the birds head...that's probably when the image when pair shape.
Thank you again, Steve for all your assistance and encouragement.
Last edited by Glennie Passier; 01-27-2016 at 03:30 PM.
Glennie, process an image, then park it, look at it the next or second day, you will see things in a better light and clearer vision. If it needs refining then no problem, if not post it, BPN will always be here, just take your time, no rush.
Well, another rich series. What Steve writes is causing a complete rethinking of both my approach to shooting and to post processing. And though emotionally I fight against change, I am sensing a Zen-like acceptance of this. My plan to execute it starts tomorrow at Bernardo, where I will photograph Sandhill Cranes in the field eating and playing, and then taking off for their evening flight to the Bosque.
My emphasis will be, "close, plan, write, review". This will take time until it becomes habit.
Glennie, I'm eager to see how you adapt some of this.
Get close. Then get closer. Think rotating the camera to vertical if it's a vertical subject. Do this before approaching so you're not scrambling to do it before the bird flies.
Focus critically, on the eye with one point.
If the subject (or you) are moving, use AI Servo. Use IS even on a tripod unless you are doing a very short exposure (~1/20 sec or longer) -- especially on a monopod.
A very sturdy tripod is your best ally for sharpness. Get a gimbal head for a heavy lens. Horizontal to vertical is a piece of cake there. (But for birds in flight, hand-holding is more flexible if you can keep things steady and pan well.
Check exposure frequently (blinkies) and bracket if time. Expose to the right as much as possible with minimum blinkies.
Find cloudy-bright light and avoid the shady side of the subject.
Raw processing should be easy and take maybe 2 minutes. The histogram is your key.
Find the best White Balance.
Set overall exposure, with an eye to shadow and highlight ends of the histogram -- try not to push anything against the walls.
Lower Highlights if needed, but only as much as necessary. If you can't recover detail, the problem was exposure (and harsh light).
Lighten Shadow if needed, but you'll bring up noise.
Bring Blacks left and Whites right if needed to pull the ends of the histogram to the ends of the box, but don't overdo contrast.
As you move one slider see if you need to tweak the ones you've already done.
A touch of Clarity can help but it can be overdone.
A little Vibrance can be nice, but don't overdo.
Things I almost never use are Saturation and Contrast, and Curves usually stays linear.
With this well done, in PS you won't need anything but maybe a tweak of Levels or Curves, and sometimes a little selective color work. It's for cloning and local adjustments. If you need heroics there there is probably something wrong with the raw processing.
Ditto Jim, I too have copied this thread and I will refer back to it.
Without being gushy or soppy, I just want to place on record, how wonderful this learning curve has been for me. Diane, you must be hitting your head against the wall. You mention the same thing time after time, and I give you the same terrible results.
And Steve, your infectious enthusiasm is overwhelming.
Get close. Then get closer. Think rotating the camera to vertical if it's a vertical subject. Do this before approaching so you're not scrambling to do it before the bird flies.
Focus critically, on the eye with one point.
If the subject (or you) are moving, use AI Servo. Use IS even on a tripod unless you are doing a very short exposure (~1/20 sec or longer) -- especially on a monopod.
A very sturdy tripod is your best ally for sharpness. Get a gimbal head for a heavy lens. Horizontal to vertical is a piece of cake there. (But for birds in flight, hand-holding is more flexible if you can keep things steady and pan well.
Check exposure frequently (blinkies) and bracket if time. Expose to the right as much as possible with minimum blinkies.
Find cloudy-bright light and avoid the shady side of the subject.
Raw processing should be easy and take maybe 2 minutes. The histogram is your key.
Find the best White Balance.
Set overall exposure, with an eye to shadow and highlight ends of the histogram -- try not to push anything against the walls.
Lower Highlights if needed, but only as much as necessary. If you can't recover detail, the problem was exposure (and harsh light).
Lighten Shadow if needed, but you'll bring up noise.
Bring Blacks left and Whites right if needed to pull the ends of the histogram to the ends of the box, but don't overdo contrast.
As you move one slider see if you need to tweak the ones you've already done.
A touch of Clarity can help but it can be overdone.
A little Vibrance can be nice, but don't overdo.
Things I almost never use are Saturation and Contrast, and Curves usually stays linear.
With this well done, in PS you won't need anything but maybe a tweak of Levels or Curves, and sometimes a little selective color work. It's for cloning and local adjustments. If you need heroics there there is probably something wrong with the raw processing.
PS would be for toning down the dark OOF blob over the head -- use a masked levels or curves, or partial opacity clone with a large brush.
One last thing, please do not allow what I may say to be 'Gospel', each trip out, each image has to be taken on it's own merits. Yes a lot is the same, but often feedback on one image can become a 'straight jacket' in terms of how folks then take subsequent images. It's good to experiment, as you learn and a disaster is something from which you can learn from, so make it into apositive, not a negative.
Finally, I notice Diane mentioned some adjustments she may or may not use, and yes, pre-sets like Linear Curve are OK, but Curves is a great tool because of how it works, and Glennie's image has two Curve adjustments to it. Try if you have time to understand how it works, then try it, you could be surprised. You just need to get your 'heads' around Lights, Mids & Darks and you can always back off with dropping the Opacity slider and a mask, but again, with a light touch. No need to think about changing Blending modes at this stay.
I would also like to add my thanks Glennie for posting nice one kiddo, and Diane and Steve for another base tutorial. This is enforcing how important getting a good solid foundation to build off is for me and also a personal view that these tools are very powerful and need to be used gently. Hmmm somewhat similar in many ways to tools used in music making as ananalogy for me .
I'm still on step one of my learning curve and came here questing for this sound base,which I suppose was tricky to convey for me,but this is exactly what i'm slowly picking up cheers to all participents it isn't only about the wonderful kind advice from Steve and Diane but also the questions...Glennie Jim,slowly it's all starting to mean something ,as I flounder around in the dark
Not sure how my long-winded post got posted twice. Apologies.
My philosophy about Curves is to wait till PS, where it is editable as an Adjustment Layer. I was talking about in LR/ACR where it "usually stays linear." Usually. (That's the default.)
Young Butcher
Originally Posted by Steve Kaluski
