I captured this image of a Australian Black Swan at Lake Morton in Lakeland, Florida. The symbol for the City of Lakeland is a swan. Lake Morton has four species of swans that are captive. The title of the image is because I went back and forth to whether I should remove the feather on the bill. Leaving it won out for now. Comments and critique welcomed and appreciated. Thank you for viewing.
Nikon D7000
Nikon 80-400mm F/4.5-5.6 VRII AF-S ED shot at 175mm (262mm FFE)
1/500 F/5.6 Matrix Metering +1/3 EV ISO 320 AWB
Post processed in Lightroom CC and Photoshop CC, I thought processing white birds was difficult, black I think now is more difficult
Cropped for composition and presentation
Last edited by Joseph Przybyla; 04-16-2016 at 08:26 PM.
Joe Przybyla
"Sometimes I do get to places just as God is ready to have somebody click the shutter"... Ansel Adams
If you have it, personally I feel having some more space in front and then moving the whole crop left would help, but just my take.
I thought processing white birds was difficult, black I think now is more difficult
Joe, if you have exposed it correctly that to me they are the same and you know how to deal with things in PP to see areas of clipping. I think you can afford to up the whites to say+30 and perhaps just drop the Exp a fraction (personal choice). Nice detail, but watch the halos around the subject, albeit slight.
Hi Steve, thank you for viewing and commenting. I worked on the original again this morning addressing your suggestions. You are right regarding the exposure. As I think back it was more a texture of the feathers with some clipping lurking in the darker recesses that I had to address one by one with the Adjustment Brush. I had room in front, so I just moved the crop left a bit which centered the head in the frame. Thanks for taking the time, your suggestions are always appreciated and educational for me.
Joe Przybyla
"Sometimes I do get to places just as God is ready to have somebody click the shutter"... Ansel Adams
As I think back it was more a texture of the feathers with some clipping lurking in the darker recesses that I had to address one by one with the Adjustment Brush.
I think it would be better just to check the Histogram and avoid too much Adjustment, but just my take. I think it has a bit more to it now, but what I say isn't 'Gospel', home other will chime in. personally i might go for a tad more to the left??
As images are never a finished product to me, I kept working on this one this morning. Last night I bought a kindle book by Scott Kelby, Photoshop For Lightroom Users (Voices That Matter), quickly reading it as I watched television. In the book there is a chapter on sharpening images using Photoshop Smart Sharpen. I used that method on this image, doing the sharpening in Photoshop rather than in Lightroom. I think the difference in noticeable.
Joe Przybyla
"Sometimes I do get to places just as God is ready to have somebody click the shutter"... Ansel Adams
Lovely curved neck, and I personally like the comp in Pane #3. Definitely keep the feather. You could have increased the ISO for a little more SS and DOF; I don't know if it would have made a significant difference.
To Feather Or Not...
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