Puffins

[Rich Steel]

Hi

Another Puffin photo from the recent visit to the Farne Islands.



Taken with 1Dmk3 and 500mm lens at F7.1 ISO320 at 1/400s.

Cheers

Rich

[Arthur Morris]

Very nicely done. Love the wing flap and the grey BKGR. A small contrast boost would help, as would darkening the pupils and lightening the irises of each bird. Why do the irises look so dark? Because when we (properly) expose for the white breasts anything darker than the bright whites is underexposed a bit. In addition, their eyes are set back in the sockets and thus receive less light. QMing techniques as described in APTATS make the darkening and lightening a snap.

[Doug Brown]

Thanks Artie for that nice explanation. It's a great image Rich! The sharpness, exposure, and interaction are all excellent. Love the fanned wings! The grey BG is just right. I would even out the BG color around the head of the bird on the right. Thanks for posting!

[Rich Steel]

Thanks for the replies and the useful exposure explanation Artie. I already lightened the iris of the birds, which were orignially very dark on the RAW file but looks like I could have taken it a bit further. The main part that bothered me with the photo was the lighter area of background behind the right bird but I couldn't think of an easy way to correct it. any suggestions would be welcome.

Cheers

Rich

[Doug Brown]

Here's a quick fix. I just selected the head, body, and far wing of the bird on the right. I pasted the selection to a new layer. Then I sampled the grey in the BG and painted it in the light area above the bird.

[Arthur Morris]

Thanks for the replies and the useful exposure explanation Artie. I already lightened the iris of the birds, which were orignially very dark on the RAW file but looks like I could have taken it a bit further. The main part that bothered me with the photo was the lighter area of background behind the right bird but I couldn't think of an easy way to correct it. any suggestions would be welcome. Cheers Rich

Hi Rich, YAW. I spent a few minutes on this in Photoshop and used Robert O'Toole's Quick Masking techniques as described so well with a zillion screen captures in his APTATS PDF plus a bit of basic Patch Tool work towards the end. Not easy with the few pixels but I think that it looks pretty good.

Did a bit of work on the eyes (also wtih QMing) but that was even harder with only a jpeg... Also used some QMs to darken the right hand bird's cap and far wing, and boosted the contrast on the whole image as well.

Well done also by Doug. Doug, did you feather the selection?

[Grady Weed]

Art, the explanation, re-do, are all excellent, a huge improvement. Having photographed Puffins with John Norton's puffin cruise to Machias Seal Island for 4 years running, it is a real treat and a exposure nightmare if the weather and other elements do not go in your favor. you need practice, lots of in the field experience, frames timed correctly, and most of all, patience! this re-do is a bang up difference. And thanks by the way for your eye on my Loon. Please post more of these Puffins, if you have them. BPN rocks.

[Rich Steel]

Doug and Artie, many thanks for taking the time to do the repost images and explain your methods. They look very good and also a good practical demonstartaion. I decided to have a go myself and selected the birds and rock onto a separate layer and then used the patch tool to cover the light area on the original layer which seemed to work fine.

Cheers

Rich

[Arthur Morris]

Hey Rich, YAW. Would love to see your re-post.

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Great image to begin with and Artie's repost makes it really shine. Great interaction, angle and BG.

[Rich Steel]

Thanks Axel.

Here is my re-post Artie



cheers

Rich

[Arthur Morris]

Fabulous re-post. And it looks as if you have lightened the irises!