"FOCUSED"

[steve torna]

One of my favorite moments of my trip to La Jolla was when this little snowy landed just ten feet or so from me. He must have seen prey in the tide from his previous superior perch. I really love his focused and determined demeanor. Canon 1D IV, 100-200mm IS Mark II, ISO 400, 1/1250 second @ f/5.6, January 21, 2016. Processed in LR, highlights down, blacks down and post crop vignetting to darken and tone down the background. I kind of think the background of irregular, cratered rocks is a distraction from an otherwise nice image.

[Diane Miller]

Wonderful intent pose and detail in the whites!! The blacks/darks are heavy and blocked up. I like the mood you're after but I wonder -- did you try bringing Shadows just a bit to the right, or not go so far with Blacks and actually darken Shadows? There is a lot of leeway in those tones.

[steve torna]

Thanks Diane, I tried your suggestions (shadows up and blacks down slightly) and the revisions worked very well. I think you just helped me salvage the image; but the background is just kind of boring and ugly.

[Diane Miller]

Good work! I think the sort of mysterious and vaguely foreboding BG is unique and works well with the bird. Now I notice one detail I'd fix if it were me -- the darker triangular shape at the top edge. I'd have a try at cloning it out, to keep my eye more on the bird.

I like this image a lot!

[christopher galeski]

Nice image,good IQ,like the pose,repost is the one.TFS.

[Marina Scarr]

Intense pose with lots of feather details. The whites on the bird are looking a little greyish to my eyes.

[steve torna]

Thank you Diane, Chris and Marina for your constructive thoughts. I may have over done it, but just for fun, I changed the background by cloning out the craters and I increased the whites and lowered overall saturation and blue saturation to get rid of the gray in the egret. Not a keeper but a great learning experience. How would you reduce or eliminate the gray hue in a white subject? Thanks steve

[Arthur Morris]

Hi Steve, Marina is right: the WHITEs are GRAY. They should show at least with RGB values in the 230s in Photoshop. And you are correct, the BKGR is UGLY. The image is sharp. And the bird is staring intently. For me the biggest problem is the head angle; the bird has its head turned away from us.

Now get back out there and find one in a better situation with a distant background. Do you live in SD? a

[Arthur Morris]

ps: Ah, I see that you are from Montana. Thanks a stack for your membership support. a

[steve torna]

Thanks everyone; I definitely learn from my bad and the ugly images not from the perfect ones.

[Diane Miller]

We all do, but this one is not bad and ugly!! It is really very nice -- it's just different from the classic, which is good. I love the work on the BG -- there is a small lighter spot in the upper right that could be darkened.

The whites went grayish by the combination of (mostly) reducing the Exposure and Highlights sliders. I assumed it was intentional, to match the dark mood. But it's easy to go back to the raw file and play with those slider positions a little. In LR they will still be where you left them.

Just back off the Highlight reduction a little and increase Whites -- the histogram is your guide. You'll have a of of leeway in how you interpret the tones before you start to loose the lovely detail in the lights. Most viewers do expect to see a fuller range of lighter tones.

[Arthur Morris]

Thanks everyone; I definitely learn from my bad and the ugly images not from the perfect ones.

Hi Steve, Here, you will be able to learn from the ones that you think are perfect; I do all the time :)

[steve torna]

Thanks Artie, I missed you by one week in La Jolla, I wish I could have met you. steve

[Arthur Morris]

Thanks Artie, I missed you by one week in La Jolla, I wish I could have met you. steve

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