While culling the files from my recent trip, I went back to some of the old files I have on my LR catalogue. I chanced upon this white faced ibis that I remember vividly chasing so hard for a pose. This was like a year ago when I was just starting to take pictures of bird after purchasing my 150-600. This was shot on a crop sensor at 600mm (equivalent field of view of 900mm) on an overcast morning at our local Bolsa Chica wetlands. I remember this bird was constantly on the move and they forage crazy fast. It was a struggle to get a good shot of this bird, but fianlly I have this one sharp with a nice head angle (I think). It's a little noisy, ISO 1600, f/8, 1/800. With the old AF of the D90, I am pretty limited on AF so I was kinda banking on the DOF of f/8, too. The background is busy, but I think this is faithful to the bird's habitat. In this photo, I struggle with the white balance. I feel whatever I do there is always some kind of color cast to it; slightly on the magenta side. So, if you have any inputs on that department, I would love to hear that.
Adhika, great looking bird. Look at those feathers. He's almost like your mawcaw. I know you say the bird is in his habitat, but would consider a fair slice off the top, and then have a look a slither off the RHS to put him off centre. A lot of birds seem to have magenta in them and finding a happy balance isn't always easy. You may already know this trick. In ACR use the eyedropper, third in from the left and click on a nice pale grey. Also in ACR, sometimes the temp and tint sliders work OK. In PS, you can do the same in a curves adjustment. Use the eyedropper in the middle, and find that nice grey. I used a feather behind your birds' eye and I think this made a slight difference. I think you could also have a tiny bit of CA on the reflection. He could be a little dark under his tail. (as he would be) It looks a little heavy to me.
Thanks! I know the picker you are talking about. I used that on this shot but I can't seem to find that perfect gray spot. I'll keep trying, I suppose. But I am liking a tighter crop from the top. I don't know about from the right because I feel like if I put the bird off center, it makes that side so heavy. For what it's worth, this bird's backside looks really fat in this picture. Haha. Here is a play on that. I bring up the exposure a notch and partially address the CA at the reflection. I am saying partially because it seems like whatever I do, I can't get rid of it in one single processing without making any problems on the bird's neck. I am not too keen on double processing this because of this picture is not of a great quality in itself. But it's a really good learning process.
I like the crop Adhika. I think perhaps your repost has gone a bit too far. Maybe somewhere in between? We have similar ibis and their bills are very pink. Now that you've lifted the black under that fat tail, I can see a bit of the noise you talked of. This is a very good learning exercise.
Good catch! We've had some of these this winter and they do seem to favor the messiest locations and rarely pause for a picture.
The bird looks nice and sharp. I might try halfway in between on the WB -- it can be very frustrating to get right. Sometimes Auto works well. I do like the removal of material at the top in the RP. I'd be inclined to do as Glennie suggestion about just a little off the RHS, but not a big deal - just the way I would do it. No magic there....
I think the the BG's WB on the top part in the RP is good, but I might have lost some "color" in the picture. I think the bird, if not the entire scene, does need some color boost - maybe a little bit of extra saturation? You know, when I get desperate with this color play, I convert them to B&W. LOL.
White faced ibis
