Snowy Plover
This is another shot in during high tide at Bolivar Flats, TX.
ISO 1250, f/6.3, 1/1600 sec
Post processing using the following changes
- Cropping, Increased Exposure
- Increase Tonality, Vibrance, Clarity etc
- Noise Reduction and Sharpening
Let me know your comments on the same.
Hi Krishna,
I love these small birds. The low perspective really works here. I think it could lose some of the negative space on the left, but more on the right. My biggest concern here is the details in the dark shadows of the eyes and the bills. They are simply too dark and too contrasty here. Maybe you could open that up a little? There is a slight color cast here, but I am not concerned with that at all, especially if you are not making a documentary.
Nice work on the POV and nice clean BG. I really like the tiny hint of the coloured reflection, and wish I could see more of it. Adhika has made some good points with the dark places. Just a tad too dark.
Well done. I can't wait to see more!
Hi All,
Thank you for the comments.
I raised the shadows to correct that issue, reduced the negative space and added space to the right of the image.
Thanks
Krishna
Much better! I don't know if this would go against your ethics, but I would actually enhance the catch light on this one. The low perspective still blows my mind.
For me, the bird is now too far to the left in the image. I would have left the composition on the left side in the OP and maybe removed a bit from the right. (Maybe that's what Adhika meant -- to remove a little neg space on the left and remove even more on the right?)
It looks like the whole image is now brighter. In Lightroom or Adobe Camera Raw it's possible to lighten the darker tones to bring out detail (which I would do here) and hold the middle and brighter tones the same or even make them darker.
What is your raw conversion program? What settings are you using?
I probably won't be able to answer till tomorrow -- have a long drive today to return home from a trip.
Hi All,
Thank you for the valuable feedback. I am using Adobe Lightroom for basic exposure and other changes. For all other changes like adding negative space etc, I am using Adobe Photoshop Elements.
Attaching the screenshot of settings in Lightroom
Hi Adhika,Originally Posted by Adhika Lie
Sure I will try to see if I can enhance catch light. Let me know if you have any video/links where I can get more info on how to add catch light etc.
Thanks
Krishna
Hi Krishna,
I hope you don't mind. I was thinking of crop along this line. I used the file from the LR screenshot. I also added the catchlight on this picture. I usually just a very soft edge dodge until I achieve the result that I want. But I think in some situation you can use less than 100% opacity white brush as well.
Raw settings: Try leaving Contrast at 0, bring Highlights down and Shadows up, then pull Blacks down carefully to just have the darkest tones approaching black. It's a balancing act but will usually bring more detail into the darkest tones without blocking them up too much. I'd probably leave Clarity at 0 or just move it slightly. View the eye at 100% to decide where the best balance lies and what each slider does to the tonalities.
Unless it's a really bad exposure, there is always a balance in those sliders that will give a good image, and with a little practice it's easy to find.
Catchlight: I just use a full opacity brush of the right size, set to white, and make a dot (or dots) on a separate empty layer. Then I can reduce opacity of needed.
Thank you Diane and Adhika for the feedback.
Thank you for the comments. I went out to Bolivar Flats again today and took photographs of the same subject. I am starting a new post on the same.
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