This bluebird is a backyard friend here in Williamsburg, Va. He is standing on my birdbath...
Photo taken hand held with OMD EM1 and Panasonic Leica 100-400 mm
focal length, 400 mm
ISO 1600
1/320s @ F 6.3 taken at 6:20 PM
no cropping, adjustments in LR
I love bluebirds and this wet one is very appealing. Nice colors and tonalities.
It would be nice to go vertical on a pose like this. The top of the frame is crowding the head and the colors of the BG are competing for attention.
I find if I put a perch near the birdbath, subjects will often pose there for a while, giving me a more natural-looking setting. I place them where the is a fairly neutral BG that doesn't compete with the bird. A BG that is distant will also let me go to a smaller aperture for more depth of field on the bird. It isn't cheating to put up a large painted BG -- commonly done for hummingbirds for other reasons. (Because you need flash and need a close but "out of focus" BG that is also lighted by the flash.)
Since this guy is a regular, would love to see what you can do with him!
This is a very nice little bird, and I am sure, like my birds they get used to clicking around them. I like Diane's suggestion of a bit more room on top. I am not familiar with the bird, but feel there could be a blue cast on him, especially on his beak. It will be lovely to see him on a nice perch!
Glennie,
Thank you for your comments. I looked again, and I can see what you describe as the blue cast....I have no explanation for that!
I am working on a perch...
Hi Ann, handsome bird this one is. Color cast can be due to many reasons but blue cast is usually due to being in shadows. That's why the "Shade" WB gives you a lot of red to compensate. This is very easy to fix in post-processing however. You can either the HSL layer with quick masking for localized blue cast or the WB setting if it's too blue all around.
The camera can only guess at the correct white balance, and it will be different as you zoom in or out on a subject, allowing more or less of other colors in the image as a reality check. A good initial check is the Auto setting in the LR/ACR raw development. Or click the eyedropper on an area that should be neutral. Then tweak to taste with the WB and Tint sliders. Can be further corrected with no harm in PS if you got close.
Often a localized correction, as Adhika mentions, is the most pleasing, but first try to get the best overall balance. Shade does = blue.
thank you so much for suggestions. Yes, the bird is in the shade...and all I did was adjust WB....and the "blue cast" was gone!
I had worried it was the lens, which I have only had a few weeks!
I am learning a lot from this forum...many thanks
Ann Gray
bluebird
