Osprey

[Joseph Przybyla]

This is an image I captured at a stop along Lake Apopka Wildlife Drive early Friday morning. Comments and critique welcomed and appreciated. Thank you for viewing.

Nikon D500
Nikon 80-400mm F/4.5-5.6 VRII AF-S ED shot at 250mm
1/2000 F/5.6 Matrix Metering +1 EV ISO 450 AWB
Post processed in Lightroom CC and Photoshop CC 2017
Cropped for composition and presentation

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Joe, nice banking shot with the wings outstretch which illustrates extremely well the feathers and how they interlink and layer. If you have time taking the exposure up a third of a stop, upping the shadows & whites and a small hint of saturation I think might give it that 'pop'?

TFS
Steve

[Joseph Przybyla]

Hi Joe, nice banking shot with the wings outstretch which illustrates extremely well the feathers and how they interlink and layer. If you have time taking the exposure up a third of a stop, upping the shadows & whites and a small hint of saturation I think might give it that 'pop'?

TFS
Steve

Hi Steve, thank you for viewing, commenting, and suggesting improvements. Your suggestions I applied only to the bird using the Adjustment Brush in Lightroom. Here's a repost.

[Steve Kaluski]

But WDYT Joe, has it help, is it an improvement and closer to what you saw or do you prefer the OP , as sometimes it's all subjective???

[Joseph Przybyla]

But WDYT Joe, has it help, is it an improvement and closer to what you saw or do you prefer the OP , as sometimes it's all subjective???

I do think it is an improvement. The layering of the feathers is shown better and as you said... the changes make the bird pop. Lesson filed away, small changes applied correctly can greatly improve and image. I need to work on seeing them and then applying. Subtle/small adjustments that coupled together make a big improvement. My changes were slightly different that what you emailed but I think we both got to the same place. Thanks for taking the time and caring to suggest changes.

[Steve Kaluski]

Thanks for taking the time and caring to suggest changes.

Your welcome Joe, but that is what we all do here on BPN, share thoughts and improvements so we can all move on and progress. I think you may initially have been a third or two thirds under exposed?

[Isaac Grant]

I like the banking pose and I like that wildlife drive as well. The drive is long but there are lots of chances to see and photograph birds. As to the birds color, this may be a screen issue but on my screen I think the second image is over lightened and does not show the typical contrast of an Osprey. I also think you have lost all details in the whites in the area around the upper leg. I did the following to the image. Wonder what you think.

Cropped it as vertical it is looked too tight in the frame above and below the bird. I removed your signature as it was cut off.
Selected only the bird and in Selective Color I increased the blacks +4 and decreased the blacks in the whites -30 to get a truer white.
I upped the brightness +5 and added +3 contrast
In hue/saturation I went into the yellow channel and lowered it -30 (I think because I can't remember exactly with all of these numbers) as the birds belly had a yellow cast to it
Ran the NIK Detail Extractor and Tonal Contrast on the bird only at 25% opacity to bring out a little more details in the bird
Then increased the shadows a little and adjusted the highlights.