I am submitting this not-perfect-pose with a Glossy Ibis, but what I'm particularly interested in is a choice of crops, and why you like one vs. the other more.
First choice, a portrait/reflection ....
The second choice is a standard look without reflection, cropped a bit tighter .....
Both pics: Sony a77, Tamron 150-600, 600mm a f6.3. 1/800sec, ISP 640
In LR CC Dropped exposure -.95, boosted Shadows +50, dropped Whites -43, bumped Blacks +17, Clarity +29, Vibrance +10
In portrait I cropped off some both sides and top, while for standard pic I took a bit more off LHS and bottom.
Self-critiquing, I may have taken too much of RHS in both crops. I did not take this into PS CC just yet. I have a question to all about the background in a photo like this -- do you leave as it is, or would you go in and really work the BG to blur it?
Anyway, always appreciate your C&C and your thoughts about the choice of crops.
Excellent picture, AP! I can't seem to get the Ibis to pose right because they are constantly moving. My choice goes to the vertical crop. I might be biased, I have a strong affinity to vertical photos but in this picture I can feel the interaction between the ibis and its shadow. Can you post the original uncrop picture for this one?
I would say Whites -43 is a little odd to me. You might want to start by dropping exposure even more to get the correct midtones and bumping up the whites a little bit as a way of adding the brightness. I also have never encountered situations where I have to increase Blacks by +17, but Glennie has shown such use in a couple occasions so there might be valid situations that call for it. I will only bump Clarity for the bird (by using the adjustment brush) so you won't increase the "definition" on the BG. I personally think the BG on this lovely and not over crowded. I would not do too much about it except probably cleaning up a little "spots" on the water/reflection. Can't wait to see more!
I would agree with Adhika and go with the vertical crop on this one. In the horizontal, to me, there does not seem to be enough room for virtual feet...and I do love reflections. Every image is different, so no rule of thumb. Do you have any more on the RHS?
I'm still working on ACR (same as your LR) and find I am needing to do less fiddling; a lot of the time the sliders I have used are questioned. I don't have an answer. i just work on it till it looks right to my eyes. Having said that, I rarely touch whites, and just lately, I have not used the clarity or vibrance. Adhika has made an excellent comment about "increasing the definition" via the use of clarity. But now I just wait til I get the image into PS and smart sharpen for posting.
I love the BG! And wouldn't change anything except, as Adhika mentioned, cleaning up the water of the little black spots.
Hope you don't mind me playing with your image. Here is my take on it, without seeing the uncropped image.Now, I might consider toning down the white, facial streak in the reflection. A couple of layers adjustments.
A nice catch, and an unusual pose now and then can be OK. I don't know the bird's color but Glennie has brought out a lot of pink/magenta. Maybe it's correct, though. Maybe in-between?
I'd like to have a little more room on the right and prefer the first version. But the second does show the detail nicely. I don't mind the BG as it is nicely subdued and looks natural.
The effect of the LR/ACR sliders will vary with the tonalities in the image but I would never go left with whites or right with blacks. (Maybe in very rare cases.) Set exposure first for midtones then go left with Highlights and right with Shadows as needed. Maybe change (mostly lower) Contrast if necessary. Look at the Camera Profiles first, though -- too easy to overlook them.
Blacks and Whites are for tweaking the ends of the histogram at the end of the other tonal work.
I don't see "damage" to the image here, but it's not really the way the sliders were designed to work.
Last edited by Diane Miller; 05-12-2016 at 11:14 AM.
I'll post the original as-shot pic later this evening, but I can tell everyone why I was messing with White and Black sliders. I did start with Highlights and Shadows, but after I had (maybe incorrectly thought I was) finished with them, I noticed the legs were too white from getting direct sunlight. So I dropped whites to get the legs back into what I thought was the correct look. But in doing that, I was getting some of the black areas under-exposed, so I boosted blacks to get rid of the under-exposure areas (mostly in the wing area).
Well, that was what happened as I remember it.
Diane, thanks for the workflow explanation. I need to put together a good set of General Rules for my slider work. Something like this maybe (see below)?
Exposure: look at midtones (greys in the Histogram) and get histogram grays in the middle
Contrast: usually leave alone, try not to increase
Highlights: generally decrease to left to reduce white clipping
Shadows: generally increase to the right to reduce black clipping
Whites: generally decrease to the left to recover white details, usually a small amount, only when historgram shows whites still far right
Blacks: generally increase to the right to recover black details, usually a small amount, only when histogram shows blacks still far left
Clarity: possibly increase if you want both bird and background sharpened, better if only bird (via Adjustment Brush in LR)
Saturation: try not to; a little goes a LONG way
The first part is good but if whites are blown there is a limit to what you can do. For any one image, it's whatever works, and that will be different for each camera and lighting situation. If contrast is high I'd start with looking at the different camera profiles, and maybe bring down the contrast slider. If whites are too bright I can almost always get them under control with a balance of exposure and highlights. Then lighten shadows as needed. But that will have noise limitations at some point. Clarity will only further increase the contrast issues you're trying to deal with, so I reserve it for low contrast images. It's not sharpening but midtone contrast.
But as I say I can't criticize your results here, so maybe I'm being too rigid. LR/ACR are quite amazing in the degree to which those sliders have different "ranges" depending on the image. In some, whites full left will be way too much and in others will barely do anything.
The top means nothing. Clipping is just the right and left. I think it's scaled that way so the very low values in the segment that is basically a horizontal line will show.
Those values stop short of piling up at the ends so the exposure is good. Start with lowering Exposure and then work light and dark detail with Highlights and Shadows, and then work the ends with Blacks and Whites.
Glossy Ibis - crop choice?
