I waited for quite a while trying to get a better reflection of the hen here but she never turned to give me the right sun angle to do that.Waiting did allow all the teal that were initially in the way to clear off however. This, as all my images, was processed in Aperture. At the end I tweaked levels a bit to the right to give it more intensity of colour. I have another version where I tweaked it to the left and will do that as an RP tomorrow as I'm interested to see what comments and preferences I might get on the comparison.7D MII;EF 100-4--L IS II + 1.4x III @ 560mm;ISO 500;f/9;1/1600;Induro 370 w/ Wimberly head
Stunning. Imaginative posing. And the color palette of the image could make a fabric designer jealous. I think you must have pulled the optimum out of the camera/lens/tc combination for focus. This photograph makes me consider it for myself.
Not surprisingly I find the debris in the water distracting, but what can be done? The one thing I might suggest changing is to extend the bottom of the image to give a bit more space to the reflections. Congratulations on a beautiful photograph.
I do like showing birds in their habitat and you have done well here. I don't know these birds, but I would have expected them to be a little more rich in colour? I would have liked to see a bit more of their faces. But having said that I would be very happy to have these birds in my folders.
Thanks for your comments guys. Yes this is quite a mucky little tidal lagoon at this stage off the tide. I did clean up some junk that was impinging on the two birds as well as some spots onthedrakes white chest. Actually Glennie this is the brighter of the two shots I was going to post---I'm mobile now & will put the other up when I get home.
Ours are a rather subdued color, so I assume the same for yours. The soft warmth of first and last light will punch up colors like this a little, but a cloudy day is going to give soft colors. I do like the brown and blue palette. What is your raw converter? A little Vibrance might be nice.
I'd crop from the top to lose the large blobs of flotsam, and include a little more canvas on the bottom if you have it.
Artistically, I don't care for this sort of messy shallow water, but it is what it is. The pose, with the two growing out of the overlapping tails, is a bit awkward to me. You did get good detail with them both slanted well out of the focal plane.
This is the more subdued colour version I referred to in Post #1 and I've moved the crop down a bit, but all that dose is replace the mud above with the mud below. This I think is a more accurate representation of the colours as they really appeared but artistically, as an image, I prefer the colours with more intensity, although that is a proclivity that I often find myself having to restrain as I'm processing. I do note however that many of the best images on "Avian" have a real brightness and clarity of colour, an achievement I have yet to satisfactorily achieve.
I find this composition more balanced. Even if you can't have classic beauty, balance is still an asset.
Clarity of color is to some extent a result of clarity of tones, with a full range of whites and blacks in the histogram, but not blocked up. Great color also comes from great light -- the soft cloudy-bright kind. Too muck cloudy will mute colors, but is better than full sun in most cases.
A little Vibrance is also a help on a cloudy day, and I don't think it would push this one over the edge.
Your advice for adding vibrance gives a result that I really like Dianne. As an image on the wall this pops for me, but one only sees birds glow like this in what I call "magic time" light on certain late afternoons.
You're right Dianne, there's a widgeon hen and drake in the flock. Thank you so much for the tips---they are simple and basic yet make such a lovely difference.
Bob. Your repost is lovely. The vibance and crop has made the difference for me. If it were mine, I would be inclined to see if I could take out some of the little floaty bits in the water. But I like to fiddle so much.
Thanks Glennie, I too like the extra punch the vibrance gives it ---I'm going to feel more free to take my images in that direction when it feels right.
Pintail pair feeding
I waited for quite a while trying to get a better reflection of the hen here but she never turned to give me the right sun angle to do that.Waiting did allow all the teal that were initially in the way to clear off however. This, as all my images, was processed in Aperture. At the end I tweaked levels a bit to the right to give it more intensity of colour. I have another version where I tweaked it to the left and will do that as an RP tomorrow as I'm interested to see what comments and preferences I might get on the comparison.7D MII;EF 100-4--L IS II + 1.4x III @ 560mm;ISO 500;f/9;1/1600;Induro 370 w/ Wimberly head
