Taken in the forest of Dean at a lake with a footpath where many travel,much care was taken watching for my approach having any effect what so ever on her. None was apparent so we got to spend some time together: if anything she did showed me she was bothered by me this pic would not have been taken. Frame is FF as taken. It was the devils own job to get her and reflection in frame,I had to wait for her to pop her head down to do some work on her nest. Even harder to get a clear view to her without obstruction. Ha, her fella was busy trying to clear the lake of some cross bred khaki cambells which was priceless to watch. But I was never able to be in the right position to nab him.
Taken with my canon 1Div with a bare 300/f2.8 is, lying on my back desparately trying to find an angle without clutter in front, all but in half a sit up position, probably with a knee slightly raised to steady lens. This whole session was a work out, sadly the light was not what I'd have liked way to harsh, but hey, here we are. No focal point active at moment of capture as I say this was a bit hard to get the frame clear.The joys of hard full bore graft are probably why I got something, this was very hard physically. I hope I have got all my details right this time colour space checked. Processed in dpp4 main goal to get the highlights under control,but I feel some of the blacks are choked
TV 2000
f/7.1
iso 800
Massive thanks for all the help given previously I so wish things were faster and I could move up to explore PS,but hey it is what it is
Stu, this is great, from the POV, to the inclusion of the reflection and the reeds creating a cool 'graphic' backdrop, nice one.
No idea in DPP how you can check, but the darks and shadows look a bit choked in the 'debris' of the nest around the head. Backing off 'selectively' (that's the issue) of the Black, Shadow & Contrast brings out more detail. I might crop the green creeping in at the foot, but just personal taste.
Steve the blacks are choked as per my post I know how to check in DPP but in this light I had both highlights and shaodaws on the edge ,but I have not yet the ability to get around this
Mate, your eyes,stunning Steve !!!! How I studied these frames trying for that one where I got close to what I wanted,but on no level did I spot those greens you always educate me buddy !!
Steve can you elucidate on what you mean by backing off selectively please?
My humble apologies if replies are slow coming forth after this.
Sorry, I get so used to talking in this way, I write it too!!! Reduce, lower, ease off.
selectively
In LR & PS you can be specific, targeting key areas with an Adjustment brush, or with Layers & Masks, so you are NOT Globally making changes which will effect the whole image. Selectively ensures you only make changes to 'specific' areas.
Stu, I agree with Steve. Beautiful image. With Steve's suggestions, I think this will be great. Personally I would remove/clone out the little green leaf by the birds head...and trim a little off the top, as well as what Steve has mentioned about cropping to above the greeny stuff on the bottom.
Stu, I'm not say this is right, but you did capture the image very well, with good detail, so things are improving hugely and again, ALL in the right direction, as you can see there is a huge amount of info/detail within the image.
Probably somewhere between the two postings i.e. OP & this RP as I have pushed it a little more just to show what you captured in the darks, but as you can see 'mate' , you should poor yourself a small snifter in celebration as you are taking onboard the feedback from all the folks and implementing it into our images. Good control of the whites too.
You are getting your eye in, thinking about the crop/framing too, the PP aspect will/is coming, it just takes a bit of time.
All said above -- a very nice capture!! I think you're hobbled now by your processing. This was obviously a high contrast image, but in LR or ACR you most likely (if whites weren't blown out) could have brought down the whites without the gray areas I see there, and lightened the darkest areas while bringing out detail. It's so important to control the whole tonal range, and you can do so much these days without resorting to local adjustments. And then when you have done the best job with global adjustments and need to resort to local adjustments, you have much more tonal information to work with.
I find I have so much more leeway and direct control of tonal ranges, especially with "difficult" images, with the intuitive interface in LR/ACR and the excellent histogram information.
Stu, I agree with Steve. Beautiful image. With Steve's suggestions, I think this will be great. Personally I would remove/clone out the little green leaf by the birds head...and trim a little off the top, as well as what Steve has mentioned about cropping to above the greeny stuff on the bottom.
Great stuff! Hope to see more soon Stu!
First an apology for the desparately slow reply: too much work !
Glennie again wonderful eyes,I hadn't really noticed the green leaf you mentioned either.. I hear you on the crop ,I was sort of scuppered by being in a position/distance from herwhere when she lifted her head I still had her in frame,it was a nightmare framing this one,so yes sure with her head down I possibly should have got slightly closer,she was very at ease with my prescence. thanks kiddo .
Steve thanks for the repost and the kind words,your point in presenting the lifted shadows understood,. Yes I had a bit of time to think here so was able to draw upon all the help and advice so freely given here. I think I'll make steps forwards and back for some time yet,but it's all good .
Ha ha I have to use the m word constantly moving about working with strangers so yes it appears in my writing too mate ,cruel man lol.
Diane yes I know it's getting frustrating,not having further tools, but then all this graft is leaving me so little time,I'm barely doing anything else,at least I'm getting out a bit and loving all this. Diane the histogramme info frustrates me in dpp at this time i'd love more detail so that is heart warming to know that when I make the next step I will have more to delve into. The image was very high contrast,the sun way too high when we found her. Certainly the whites and shadows were on the edge of being blown in both directions, thanks for the pointers about the tonal range and working the image up,very useful having things spelled out.
Mute Swan on nest
, sadly the light was not what I'd have liked way to harsh, but hey, here we are. No focal point active at moment of capture as I say this was a bit hard to get the frame clear.The joys of hard full bore graft are probably why I got something, this was very hard physically. I hope I have got all my details right this time colour space checked
. Processed in dpp4 main goal to get the highlights under control,but I feel some of the blacks are choked
Originally Posted by Glennie Passier
