Sorry -- have been away and not taking many new shots due to ...... just a lot of stuff. But I did get one chance recently ...
My first semi-decent shot of an osprey. Normally I see them perched up too high, or most often they are positioned with me shooting them into the sun. On this day this one was perched lower and the sun was blocked by pretty significant cloud cover.
Sony a77ii, Tamron 150-600 at 600mm, F6.3, 1/2000 sec at ISO800
Original:
In Lightroom CC I increased Exposure +.48, increased highlights +36, and increased Clarity +10. Cropped down to make this a profile shot.
Appreciate your C&C and ask if there is anything else you would have/could have done to make this better (as-is -- I mean I know I need to shoot with sun, not against! )
AP, you had a lucky break being able to capture this bird. I don't think there is much more I could have done with this either.
The only thing I could think of is brightening his eyes. I hope this would be within your PS ethics? One small curves adjustment layer. And a little dodge and burn around his eyes.
A nice job compositionally Andrew in taking an otherwise dark image and giving us a look deep into the eyes of a killer. There appears to be some significant noise on the bird, I assume due to the substantial crop, so I'm wondering if you ran it through any NR software. It's a funny thing noise---sometimes clearly visible and noticeable, other times you just sense it without actually seeing it, other times there if you look for it. I like the way Glennie's RP has brightened your OP, especially the eyes. I detect considerable colour and texture in the body, or perhaps it's left wing feathers and it w/b interesting to see how the whole image looked after Glennie's treatment.
I keep repeating this lesson here and on my blog. With a white sky and no sun and the image averaging to much lighter than a middle tone you need to start by adding two full stops of light to what the meter suggested. Else, as here, your RAW file will be miles underexposed and when you lighten such images, you introduce digital noise and destroy image quality (as with the image in Pane 1). In addition, such a huge crop will also destroy image quality...
Glennie's repost is an improvement but you could have done much better simply by getting the EXP right in the field. I do like the stare.
a
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Glennie: I like your RP; thanks for taking time to make the mods.
Bob: No, I did not run thru Nik DFine -- I thought that doing that might lower IQ even more as it cleaned up the noise (do I have that right?)
Artie: Many thanks for your comments. As a rank beginner, I try to remember to do these things in the field, but since I have (so far) taken so few photos in either heavy cloud cover like that day, and was so excited about the opportunity, I did not remember this important lesson.
Still so much to learn and make part of my pre-shot thinking ......
YAW Andrew. Just get in the habit of looking at the histogram after a making a test image; the key is to always have at least some data in the rightmost box of the histogram. Best advice, get yourself a coy of ABP II and hit the books, especially the section on Exposure Simplified. Good luck!
a
BIRDS AS ART Blog: great info and lessons, lots of images with our legendary BAA educational Captions; we will not sell you junk. 30+ years of long lens experience/e-mail with gear questions.
BIRDS AS ART Online Store: we will not sell you junk. 35 years of long lens experience. Please e-mail with gear questions.
Check out the new SONY e-Guide and videos that I did with Patrick Sparkman here. Ten percent discount for BPN members,
Late to the party but I really like the stare and choice of crop here Andrew. Underexposure noted but I am wondering if the whole thing could be brighter (I know this will bring out noise) but I guess it's good to note what exposure you are going after if noise is not an issue (in other words how much more you should increase the exposure in camera).
Osprey Profile
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