Only just started to process last months trip as I hate to do anything as soon as I'm back, IMHO you never edit with a clear head.
These are gorgeous little birds, but fast, zipping around catching small insects passing by, shot against the tall grasses - the bushveld Turpentine grass.
This was the last trip using the other 1DX and the new MK2, seeing the Dynamic range of the MK2 and IQ, I wished I had swopped bodies, but there we go. Shooting with the MK2 back home, it's really capturing a lot more finer detail, especially with the Little owls.
Thanks to those who viewed or posted a comment on the previous thread, albeit some time ago.
Steve
Subject: Little Green Bee-eater (Merops orientalis) on branch
Location: Botswana
Camera: Canon 1DX MKII
Lens: 500f/4 MKII with 1.4x MKIII HH from a Landcrusier
Exposure: 1/2000s at f/8 ISO800 EV +1.00
Original format: Landscape, slight crop
Processed via: LRCC & PSCC
(No NR, Blurring or softening, it's all natural DoF)
Nice little bird, the typical perch of the area, great BG and I like the composition. There is something strange going on on the left edge...a dark spot. Did you clone out something there?
No I didn't, no idea Lorant, is it about 2/3rds up LHS?
Am currently away, but need to see both Raw & Hi res Tiff. If anything it's probably on one of the Adj layers which perhaps got hit with the white brush, sloppy???? Just guessing?
Great composition and I love the combination of colors of the bird and BG. I do wish you had stopped down a little more, the tip of the beak and tail are just OOF, and I think more of the perch in focus would have strengthened the image. Some selective sharpening on the tip of the beak could help here, I don't mind the tail being OOF too much.
Hi Steve, great angled pose, well placed in the frame, and overall tack sharp. The colours are spot on, and you certainly nailed the BG with the naturally OOF grass. I do like the light too.
All bee-eaters are pretty quick. Try capturing a take off, they dont give you any tell tale sign they are going. Then they normally take off the wrong way.
The pose, the details and the BG all look great. The perch, not so much. To many OOF parts to it that make my eyes go wonky when looking at this. Here is a quick cleanup. Well done and look forward to more from your trip
Come join me for a Custom Raptor Workshop starting this November 2019- January 2020.
P.M. me to inquire on dates, pricing and availabilities. Thank You. www.davidsalemphotography.com
Stu, I will give you plenty of notice when we come out next time, we can then try and have a few days together where you can help me with BIF, especially the Bee Eaters. In payment you can use the other 1DX MK2, if that's enough of a sweetener?
BTW Can you drop me a line on how Colleen is doing please.
Hi David, thanks for you RP and agree, some of the branches could go, but sometimes I harp back to leaving 'as shot', as the branches here are all real and in situ, compare to the garden set-ups we see. More challenging too in trying to achieve the shot. This is one of the cleanest, others are far more busy, the price you pay I guess shooting from a vehicle, stepping out is strictly controlled for obvious reasons, so not even a bit of gardening sadly.
The repost is a bit too clean for my taste, although I'm very jealous of the PP work. For that image, I would crop closer on the bird. I tried to envision the image with more of the perch in focus and came up with this (all selective sharpening using the Nik output sharpener plug in on different parts of the perch and the bird selected in with a quick mask, then tweaked using the opacity slider for the different layers). There is so much detail in this low res image already that I bet working with the original image will enable you to get a much better result using this technique.
Steve think I might remove the two top oof twigs closest to the bird but that apart the bird itself looks really natural with the colours just as I remember them,all fits beautifully on that smooth bg.
The original does look more natural, but, the twigs removed I think shows off the bird more. Fabulous detail on the bird and a lovely pose. Like the colours throughout.
Little Green Bee-eater
Reply With Quote
