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BPN Member
Oh, Glennie, this is superb. Every element.The crop is spot on. And the exposure. I can see detail in every bit of the whites. That's amazing with this much white. The turn of the bird's head, the perfect light on the head, breast, legs, and beak. Ideal background. Is there a bit of a glow around the beak? For me, this is not a casual photograph, but a reflection of a lot of hard work. Congratulations.
Sorry. Very sorry about the computer.
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That is a beauty Glennie! Love the eye and the colors. The BG is great and I like the little ripples in the little pool!
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All said above -- wonderful! I love the low angle and smooth BG. My first impression was that the whites are a little too bright but they don't show blown in the histogram. I'd be tempted to try, for comparison, going just a little less to the right with the whites slider. But it whites aren't blown in the master file, I'd leave it -- there is a very nice glow there, with good separation of near-white tones -- i.e. good highlight detail.
I always question going right with blacks -- if they are blocked up I'd first try less negative exposure and more to the right with shadows. Maybe a little left with contrast. Hard to suggest the best balance without having the raw file. But the blacks seem OK so I can only critique it on the basis of how the sliders are normally used.
Bummer about the computer -- hope it gets fixed or replaced OK. This isn't a cheap hobby. But it is SOOO fun and it sure beats housework!
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Thank you Jim, Warren and Diane.
Diane, I am always cautious (maybe too cautious) with whites. This one; I really thought they were blown. (But no clipping of red) I checked the histogram, and the alt key on sliders, and the little eyedropper tool. All told me that all was OK. I also fiddled with blacks. Something I learned from Steve Kaluski and yourself when I was churning out Wood duck images. Don't choke the blacks! It's one of the first things I look for now. I tend not to use the contrast slider. Maybe doing so would have been an option.
I am writing this from my new computer! Yay! IT guy visiting on Monday, to make sure I am up and running in a efficient manner?
You know what they say about housework? It may not kill you...but I don't want to take that chance!
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Congrats on the computer!!
Do you have an uninterruptable power supply on it? Great insurance against fatal voltage fluctuations and will keep it running for an orderly shutdown in the event of power failure. And external backup drives? (Only turn them on to back up -- best done by software running on a schedule.
As much undone housework as I have accumulated over the years, it could indeed kill me. Definitely taking no chances.
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Diane, I am a complete dolt when it comes to anything technical. I do have an external hard drive that I leave plugged in all the time. I tend to work off the desktop a lot (hubby thinks this is so bad) and only file things away on the ext hard drive when I think I've finished with that folder.
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OK to work off the computer HD, and OK to leave the HD plugged in if it can be powered on/off independently. Having it off is protection in case a virus ravages the computer, in which case it is safe if it was not on. (Unplugged is even better from the standpoint of human error.) It's safer to copy to the external as soon as you have imported a folder, although I'll usually do the first round of deletions first. I use an automated backup program that runs in the evening when I'm likely making dinner, although it can run while I'm using the computer -- just slows things down a little. It copies new files from the internal HD to the external BU, and deletes any on the BU that I have deleted on the internal drive. The possible problem is if I deleted some files by mistake or changed my mind -- after the backup they will be deleted everywhere. There are fancier BU programs that will preserve older states, but I prefer a simple mirror. I'll take responsibility for what I delete.
If the external is your only filing cabinet for finished work, you're not backed up. Back IT up! Hard drives come with a red tag that says "Guaranteed to fail." Have every file on at least 2 disks at all times.
I personally know 4 people who have lost ALL their files through various forms of naivety and carelessness:
"It's too much trouble and it probably won't happen to me..." (total HD failure -- everything gone)
"I didn't know what all those .cr2 files were so I deleted them." (2 people did this!)
"I thought all my files were IN Lightroom so I deleted them from the hard drive because I was running out of space."
"I thought if I got a virus that my external drive would be safe." (She got the virus from a thumb drive that had been passed around -- computer version of an STD.)
And I don't know that many people. I had preached to all of them repeatedly about power supplies and backup drives -- some directly and some indirectly through a local kamera klub.
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My apology for being late to the party, Glennie but this shot is awesome!! I, too, love every bit of it. Dealing with whites is tricky. Often it looks grey but it is not the case here. This one is very well handled and I really like it. I love the b&w + orange + tan color combo here.
My personal advice is to create 3 copies of everything. 1) The main set, 2) a "local" backup like Diane explained, 3) an offshore backup. I use Crashplan to do all this stuff. It works pretty well so far.
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Diane and Adhika. Thank you! I must admit, I have been careless. But having the computer problems in the last couple of weeks has made me think a bit harder about backing up files. As well as the thousands of bird shots I now have, I also have a gazillion of my little grandson from the day he was born. I would hate to lose them.
I'll have a look at Crashplan.
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Good advice from Adhika about an offshore copy. That's my weakness, although when we are away for a few days I take the external backups to one of our hangars at the airport, along with a bootable clone of the main hard drive. Image and document files are on three internal hard drives and the operating system and programs are on the main (boot) drive.
If the boot drive fails I can run off the bootable clone, albeit slowly, and then rebuild a new boot drive from it. A good feeling. Sort of like shooting to two cards in the camera in case one fails.
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Post a Thank You. - 1 Thanks
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Glennie, absolutely lovely photograph with a great low perspective.
At first glance, I also thought the gull may be a tad on the bright side, but it's actually quite perfect.
I also love the background, the warmth of the colours there give a nice contrast to the gull's rather cool white and grey.
We saw this kind in New Zealand, the red legs, beak and eyes caught our attention there as well.
Thank you for sharing, kind regards,
Robert
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Thank you Robert. I wrote a response to your reposted gulls, but it seems to have disappeared into the ethernet. Your gulls look quite dainty and almost cute compared to our Silvers.
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BPN Member
Just a note. I keep coming back to this for the fun of it.
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Glennie,you do realize that when you take something as good as this you have raised your own bar sooo high. It's wonderful mate really is sure I'm extra in love with your Silver gull that red is so stunning against the whitebut there is so much mor:. the just arriving wave the fade in BG the fact that Ireally can reach out and touch . Glennie have you noticed that when we mere mortals get a shot like this ..as good as we can be,that the pic ha s a 3d depth to it. Maybe that is a bit off the wall but I have very few images that I feel I can reach in and around my subject. This has that quality, Glennie if I said I have 5 pics that I feel that way about ,does that put how I rate this one into perspective??
coool mate utterly cool
Stu
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Stu, you are right about that bar. Not just for this gull image though. I have so many shots that I consider as being OK. But being good enough to post here is a different story. I look back at my early postings and cringe. I feel now, with the gentle guidance of Diane and other fellow ETLers that I have improved a good deal. I practice a lot Stu. Surely I can't go backward.
Thank you so much for your kind words!
