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Welcome Swallow
Another shot from the Western Treatment Plant near Melbourne. Taken early on an overcast day so the light was quite poor but at least nice and soft. This species is very common and often overlooked as a result but rather attractive, I think. Bird shown in immature. Vertical crop from a horizontal frame which takes in most of the vertical height of the original frame.
As always, thank you for looking and for any comments you are kind enough to share.
Technical: Canon 80D with EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM at 400mm handheld. Manual exposure 1/125 sec, f6.3, ISO 1600. Processed in Canon DPP 4 (digital lens optimiser @ 50, sharpness = 3, crop, lighting adjustments, NR) then exported 16 bit TIFF to Photoshop Elements with Neat Image NR plugin. Modest NR to bird and stronger NR to background. Bird only sharpened in PSE (Sharpness tool, remove Gaussian Blur) after final size reduction.
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Nice one Glenn. I spent an evening and morning in Werribee. The birding was fantastic and the people were even more fantastic. Had an amazing meal at a local restaurant and talked with the owner who wound up making us a special dinner and then would not let us pay for it. They couldn't believe that people would come from New York City to go to a sewage treatment plant! I like the details, perch and background. Only thing I would say is what I say on every shot posted in low light, that you need to push the file a little more. I think you could warm it up a little and up the blacks and decrease the mid tones just a touch and the bird will really come to life more.
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Hi Glenn,
what a lovely bird and I would welcome the warmth Isaac refers to; that increase should give more definition throughout and against the gold BG, it'll fly off the screen! Love the wispy young fluff edge feathers.
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Lifetime Member
Hi Glenn, super pose, and I like the wind swept plumage. I like how he is perched high in the frame, and against a clean smooth BG. I like Isaac's idea of a touch of warmth added.
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Thank you Isaac, Ann and Stu. Here is a rework although I'm not entirely sure I've implemented what you suggested correctly as it doesn't look a lot better to me: I've warmed the bird (and desaturated the background a little to provide some more pop). Also played with the tone curve to drop the midtones down and darken the black end. I'd appreciate any other pointers on this.
Last edited by Glenn Pure; 03-27-2018 at 09:33 PM.
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The rework looks better to me. I find he frame "right-heavy' since he is so close to that edge. You could move him left
a bit while still maintaining some open space on that side of the frame. Could be sharper, but it's a nice look at this speedster.
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Great looking swallow beautifully captured, Glenn. Under the conditions you describe, I think in post you've handled the degree of feather colors and details, including a subtle iridescence in his back feathers very nicely in the original post. Great perch and lovely BG as well.
Geoffrey
http://500px.com/geoffreymontagu
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Originally Posted by
Isaac Grant
Hi Glenn. I think that somewhere in between the 2 posts would be best. I find the repost a little too heavy. I did the following. Add 2 points of black in levels. Reduced mid tones by 3 points. Added a touch of brightness and contrast. 1 point each. Went into Viveza (NIK plug in) and added 4 points of warmth and one point of brightness. Did a shadow and highlight adjustment. The changes are subtle but I think add a touch more depth to the bird without it looking heavy. thoughts?
Thanks for showing and describing what you were thinking. The controls I have are a little different in some cases in Photoshop Elements. I agree my repost is a a bit 'heavy' and yours and improvement on the OP. I appreciate your time on this.
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Happy to help. I think you raise a good point here. I should probably learn elements and Lightroom as well as I don't ever use either. I really do not have a point of reference as to what to say to do in there to make those changes. But I guess the theory is a little more than you did on the original and a little less than the repost 
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BPN Member
This is looking good Glenn. Lovely pose, perch and BG. The swallow pops real good against all they neutral colours. Fine feather detail and HA. Nice POV. I like your chosen crop. I agree with Issac that somewhere between the OP and repost, makes it look at its best.
Good work
Will
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Great capture Glenn the repost by Isaac really makes a big difference to wonderful image
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