I was out at the lighthouse beach one day during my vacation and stumbled on this nice bird near the pier, just soaking up the sun and preening. I had my extender on for smaller birds and decided to leave it on for some nice frame filling head shots.
Canon 7dll, 100-400ll, 1.4xlll, 560mm f/8 400 iso, 1/2500, hand held, a little cropping for composition.
Great preening pose Michael. I love the look of focus in the eye here. The shots looks just a bit flat to me and I feel you could lower some of the blacks a bit to get a little more natural contrast / pop. But very nice pose and shot. TFS
Hi Micheal, great capture and I really like the texture of the head plumage. The light backdrop works for me, as it provides some nice standout. I agree with Alex, it does look a bit flat, but flat in terms of a bit 'bright', I would drop the exposure by around a third of a stop and also some Shadow adjustment, darker but not much you do not want to block the detail. Then tweaking the Exposure module and adding some simple Curves adjustments you can start to bring out the tonal depth of the capture, so you have some 'form', plus more detail can then come through as in the bill. How far you take it is personal choice, but hope this may help in direction???
remember, this is with a 341kb image with 256 colours, think what you can achieve with the RAW.
yes! agree with both posts, thanks! Steve, that is mind blowing how you got so much more color out of that tiny file, without making it looked over processed!! Do you have any or can recommend any tutorial videos to help me out, I am having a hard time getting my brain around these the terms and numbers and would learn faster actually watching the process. Thanks for encouraging me to take my image making to the next level!
Excellent repost by Steve. Good job iwth the preening head angle.
with love, artie
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,
ps: bad luck with the off-centered pupil. But that can be fixed ...
with love, artie
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,
Hi Micheal, there isn't really a 'silver bullet' that does it all, it's just a case of spending time and learning what things do, however the hardest part perhaps is knowing exactly what is required without going over board, 'less is more'.
Your best bet is to see if there there are any PS Workshops run by Adobe via an Apple store, you can also try You Tube (amazing who is on there, hey Artie ) but then you do have to distill the goods, BTW whilst your there I suggest you do checkout Artie's videos. If I have time, I'll see if I have any Video tutorial links.
Micheal, you did the hard part, getting the capture.
Micheal is this image shot with the correct 'Working Space' now in camera or not? happy reading, I will lookout for the next post Micheal and the huge leap forward in both Capture & PP.
Micheal is this image shot with the correct 'Working Space' now in camera or not? happy reading, I will lookout for the next post Micheal and the huge leap forward in both Capture & PP.
Steve, Negative. this was from my Florida vacation a couple weeks ago, before I knew about space settings. :p
Hi artie,
I am not sure what you mean. have it so it is more looking at me instead of looking down at its plumage?
~MT
MT: Not exactly. It bugs me when the pupil is off-centered. If it were centered, it seems to me that the bird might still be looking at its plumage ...
with love, artie
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,
here is my repost after a little tweaking the sliders in lightroom. I have mixed feelings on the pupil, maybe tonight I will open up in photoshop and try it.
Reddish Egret close up
Michael Thompson thanked for this post
Originally Posted by Arthur Morris
) but then you do have to distill the goods, BTW whilst your there I suggest you do checkout Artie's videos. If I have time, I'll see if I have any Video tutorial links.
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