Green Jay

[Bill Dix]

Captured at Laguna Seca Ranch in November. On this one I've tried a two-stage sharpening method suggested by Jonathan Ashton. Cropped from left and bottom; added bit of canvas right and top.

D500, Sigma 150-600 @ 310mm; ISO 1600, 1/400s @ f/8 manual.

[Isaac Grant]

Details look good. Nice perch and I like the grasses although I am not crazy about the larger ones that are in front of the tail. Nice background. I did almost the same thing to this photo as I did to Gails harrier. Had to remove the strong blue cast, deepen the mid tones and warm up the shot.

Removed the strong blue cast by selecting the top of the head and then inverting the selection for the rest of the frame. In hue/saturation I lowered the blue channel by -80
Then lowered the blue of the top of the head by -40
Then lowered the blue on the black of the throat by -90
In levels I lowered the mid tones -10
In selective color I added +3 black to the neutrals and +1 black to the blacks
Did detail extractor on the bird at 10% opacity
Added +3 brightness and +5 contrast to the whole scene
Used viveza to add +10 warmness to the background and some extra contrast as well
Ran noise reduction at 40% on the background to get the image size lower.

Usual disclaimer of it being easier on the high res tiff and not getting things exact on this. Just showing what could be done to the file. I would probably warm up the background even more but just wanted to do a quick edit. Took me longer to write what I did then to actually do it.

[Bill Dix]

Thanks Isaac. It does look better. I appreciate your taking the time.

[Isaac Grant]

Any time Bill. It is too nice of a shot to not want to fine tune the colors and depth. Seems Nikon has the same problem as Canon on shots in this light. They are just thin, lack contrast and are too blue. David is right, you really can't be afraid to push these files to get them where they should be. I really think this one could be pushed more and made even warmer.

[annmpacheco]

Lovely repost and what a great looking bird! Im lost on step one: how does one select top of head and invert selection for rest of the frame?

[Isaac Grant]

Use the quick select tool and select only the brightest blue of the head (or whatever you are selecting). You can add to the selection by holding down shift or subtract from it by holding alt on a PC or option on a Mac. Once you have it correct then go to SELECT > INVERSE SELECTION. You can do this to as much or as little of the photo as you want. When done you can just inverse again if you want. Can also put that selection on its own layer and then change the opacity of that layer to make minor adjustments or incremental adjustments. Let me know if you have anymore questions. Or need help with saving selections, etc.

[Joseph Przybyla]

Hi Bill, lovely image. Beautiful bird, nicely shown. I really like the composition, beautiful colors, and perfect background. Thank you for sharing.

[Randy Stout]

Bill:

Great looking bird, nice catchlight, angle in frame.

The blue cast in the the blacks was very nicely handled by Isaac.

Cheers

Randy

[Geoffrey Montagu]

Good one, Bill. Like his pose on the perch, and those great looking eyelashes. Great detail, and like the results Isaac came up with in the repost too.

Geoffrey




http://https://500px.com/geoffreymontagu

[annmpacheco]

Use the quick select tool and select only the brightest blue of the head (or whatever you are selecting). You can add to the selection by holding down shift or subtract from it by holding alt on a PC or option on a Mac. Once you have it correct then go to SELECT > INVERSE SELECTION. You can do this to as much or as little of the photo as you want. When done you can just inverse again if you want. Can also put that selection on its own layer and then change the opacity of that layer to make minor adjustments or incremental adjustments. Let me know if you have anymore questions. Or need help with saving selections, etc.

Thank you Isaac, you are very helpful to all of us at BPN, I appreciate your enthusiasm and hard work...

[David Salem]

Great looking frame Bill! The first thing I noticed when I opened this up is that it looked a bit thin. Either overexposed a bit at capture or to much shadow slider in PP. Either way Isaac's repost added the depth it needed without any loss of details in the blacks, actually it created more. Don't be afraid to push these higher ISO shots is right!

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

Great repost by Isaac.

What a gorgeous frame Bill! While not the best HA, the frame looks beautiful with its colours and tones, the perch and surrounds.
TFS

[Bill Dix]

Thanks everyone. Isaac's repost does indeed make it a more attractive image. The blue cast sorely needed attention, and some added depth helped. Frankly, I don't remember the colors of this bird being quite as vivid as the repost, though. Maybe somewhere in between. It's not a bird I know well, so I could be wrong.

[Isaac Grant]

Like many birds, depending on the light that they are in, Green Jays are quite vibrant with deep blues, greens and that dark throat and chest. I have seen many of them many times over the years. But now I need to see them with my camera

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Bill, love the striking colours on this fellow's head, and the 'bushy eyebrows'. Just enough foliage not to overpower the BG, and I do like the two tone BG. Isaac has sorted the blue cast on the blacks.