Few things I am not happy about with this especially the light blue cheek patch behind the eye.Would appreciate the views of our Australian friends re colour and any other bits.
Do miss my trips down under and trying to photograph these smashing little birds but trying to get them on top of a bush was hard work.
Beautiful image Keith! Love the creamy BG and the colors are really nice. Can't help on the bird color, never seen one. But it is quite the colorful little bugger. :) I would say it looks a little dark, the blacks to me look a little crunched, technical jargon. :) ( but take that lightly it may be my monitor).
Keith, it seems really odd for me to be critiquing your images. I've seen the work you do on the other forum. Nothing short of brilliant. But I will give you my two bobs worth. I can see what you mean by the pale blue eye patch. You have captured this very well. It is very metallic in colour/shine. Craig has mentioned the blacks look a bit choked. I agree, however, these little birds are blacker than black in the the black spots. I think the turquoise wings got get a bit of a lift in colour, not saturated but lifted.
I love the dreamy BG and the colours are delightful. I especially like the OOF foiliage behind the bird, but it draws my eye away from him. To me, it's just sitting a bit high and blocking/invisible walling the bird. I'm not good at wordsmithing, sorry.
Thanks Craig and Glennie I am trying to improve all the time and still and awful lot to learn and do find it really interesting to get the views of others. Like this Glennie" I'm not good at wordsmithing, sorry" join the club..
He he I'm not much help either Keith,but it's a remarkably beautiful bird and well captured to my eye. Keith, I've pondered Glennie's comment I like the oof bush it's adding depth for me ,I mused what the picture might look like without it,but prefer it in I think as it conveys habitat as well as depth,just lovely to see buddy. I think I can see why you are unsure of the cheek but can't help in anyway sadly.
Cure little bird! I can't comment on the bird's colors but it is very high in contrast with exposure on the low side. Tone settings can affect color. What were your raw settings, and what converter?
Thank you Stuart and Diane, The point about contrast and exposure I will look at it does make a lot of sense to me, will look at raw settings ,not sure about convertor Diane?
If you "use PS", you are bringing in a raw file to the Adobe Camera Raw converter. Many people don't realize it is a separate program -- it is just a sort of helper program to PS, which doesn't handle raw files. They have to be converted first. The raw converter in Lightroom is the Develop module, which is the same engine with a different interface.
It is usually a bad mistake to use any Auto settings with either one.
So help me understand what your processing is -- converter and slider settings. That's as important as camera settings these days.
Thanks Diane only have a Jpeg of this bird, have to pop out now but will try it with a decrease in contrast and maybe an increase in exposure and repost.
Do you only shoot in JPEG? If so, at least keep the contrast very low and only shoot in very soft light. You can increase contrast, but once high contrast is cemented into an image in a JPEG or a PS file, you can't decrease it without damaging tonalities. In a raw file the tonalities are not cemented in and you have a much wider leeway of adjusting things.
At the least, shoot in JPEG + RAW and begin learning how to develop a raw file. The raw file is an amazing digital negative representing all the tonal range your camera can capture under the lighting and exposure situation.
I think the best you can do is to use Nik's Detail Extractor (in Color Efex Pro). The filter makes a new layer and I masked it off the OOF bush, as it took on a bit of a funky look. The brightened the exposure a little. Cropped a little off the top and left to better fill the frame and let the weight of the bird better offset the weight of the vegetation.
It can be very nice but be careful of overdoing it. Use the Contrast slider to balance the effect, and pay attention to all the other controls. Best to do the most you can in raw conversion. Coming into PS with an image whose contrast is too high is always a mistake, as the tonalities are cemented in and you have much less leeway to soften them than in raw.
Splendid fairy wren
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