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Avian Moderator
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Post a Thank You. - 1 Thanks
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Publisher
Hi Brian and welcome to BPN. Great first post. Too bad it was so windy :) The image is sharp, the raised crest is mega, and the bow wave and wake are perfect, as is the framing. In a perfect world, the bird would have been swimming slightly toward you rather than slightly away. Sometimes in a situation like this, a soft squeak might get the bird to turn its head back toward you. Or, it might scare it to Connecticut ...
with love, artie
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Avian Moderator

Originally Posted by
Arthur Morris
Hi Brian and welcome to BPN. Great first post. Too bad it was so windy :) The image is sharp, the raised crest is mega, and the bow wave and wake are perfect, as is the framing. In a perfect world, the bird would have been swimming slightly toward you rather than slightly away. Sometimes in a situation like this, a soft squeak might get the bird to turn its head back toward you. Or, it might scare it to Connecticut ...
with love, artie
Artie, thanks for having me!
Appreciate the feedback. He was a very patient subject :-)
I do have a couple amazing shots (similar) where he was swimming at me. For feedback on one of those, just wait 24 hrs and post making a reference to this post?
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BPN Member
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Avian Moderator

Originally Posted by
Andreas Liedmann
Hi Brian .. looks good to me overall . I am with you about the softness of the water ....
Artie has raised a good point about the shooting angle .... and the scare to Connecticut



. By knowing it is difficult ... I might try to keep more details visible in the dark parts of the plumage .
TFS Andreas
Andreas, thank you. Are you referring more specifically to the neck? If so, suggestion on process for that?
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BPN Member
Indeed that neck region .... suggestion would be , stay away from the blacks in the whole process until the very end and avoid global contrast adjustments ! Just my take . I know sounds like a very global suggestion .... but is a starting point
. Staying away from the blacks means to me .... avoid using the levels / curves / selective color blacks sliders or black point , until the very end of the editing . Hope you understand what I am talking about .
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Avian Moderator

Originally Posted by
Andreas Liedmann
Indeed that neck region .... suggestion would be , stay away from the blacks in the whole process until the very end and avoid global contrast adjustments ! Just my take . I know sounds like a very global suggestion .... but is a starting point

. Staying away from the blacks means to me .... avoid using the levels / curves / selective color blacks sliders or black point , until the very end of the editing . Hope you understand what I am talking about .
Ah yes, I understand that. I can still go back and adjust to decrease the strength of blacks and potentially reduce contrast and get closer to your suggestion, yes?
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BPN Member
For the best result you should have a master file with adjustment layers , then you have the most control about all the elements .
If you start with a flattened TIF .... good luck .
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BPN Member
Brian another thing is , you have no embedded color profile .
You need to convert to sRGB color profile and save it with an embedded color profile . Otherwise your colors may look weird in different browsers and different OS . Standard for web images is sRGB .... and most of the monitors can only display that color space !!
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Avian Moderator

Originally Posted by
Andreas Liedmann
For the best result you should have a master file with adjustment layers , then you have the most control about all the elements .
If you start with a flattened TIF .... good luck .
Indeed I do, in Lightroom :-)
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BPN Member
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Avian Moderator

Originally Posted by
Andreas Liedmann
Brian another thing is , you have no embedded color profile .
You need to convert to sRGB color profile and save it with an embedded color profile . Otherwise your colors may look weird in different browsers and different OS . Standard for web images is sRGB .... and most of the monitors can only display that color space !!
Feeling pretty noobish right now Andreas. I checked in PS, and in the Export settings, it is checked next to "Convert to sRGB". I ought to think that should be effective, correct?
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BPN Member
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Avian Moderator

Originally Posted by
Andreas Liedmann
My proof ....
Ok I'll investigate. Thank you for your time.
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Avian Moderator

Originally Posted by
Andreas Liedmann
My proof ....
I see this. I am confused but I do appreciate your time Andreas so I'll not bother you further.
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BPN Member
Apart from what's already been said regarding the direction of the bird and the HA...I really like this. Beautiful detail on the bird....I love the water.
Will
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Avian Moderator

Originally Posted by
William Dickson
Apart from what's already been said regarding the direction of the bird and the HA...I really like this. Beautiful detail on the bird....I love the water.
Will
William, very much appreciated. Thanks for chiming in!
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BPN Member
Welcome. Lovely first image. As stated the only quibble I would have is the bird angling away from you.
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Avian Moderator

Originally Posted by
Jack Backs
Welcome. Lovely first image. As stated the only quibble I would have is the bird angling away from you.
Jack, glad to be here thanks!
I have one where he is coming toward me and still has great reflection. Will post tomorrow.
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Love the crest and that blue water. Like the wake as well.
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Avian Moderator

Originally Posted by
John Mack
Love the crest and that blue water. Like the wake as well.
John, thanks for chiming in!
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Super Moderator
I like the low angle and the clean water. Artie provided touched on the most relevant issue which is the angle of the bird, the rest is pretty good as is. You can attempt to open up the darks but there is not much detail there in a merganser anyway.
TFS
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Avian Moderator

Originally Posted by
arash_hazeghi
I like the low angle and the clean water. Artie provided touched on the most relevant issue which is the angle of the bird, the rest is pretty good as is. You can attempt to open up the darks but there is not much detail there in a merganser anyway.
TFS
Good stuff Ari. I did pull it back up, reduced contrast and found some detail in the neck area.
Looking forward to diving into the C1P tutorial.
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Macro and Flora Moderator
I see the image was saved as png as opposed to jpeg, I am not familiar wit the former but does that affect sRGB?
I like the bow wave and the colours of the bird, I know you have some beautiful light over there but the water does look a rather electric blue to me.
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Hi Brian, from the home of Coor's Beer, welcome to BPN. I like the image a lot. Already noted that the merganser is angling slightly away. I look forward to more of your images. Thank you for sharing.
Joe Przybyla
"Sometimes I do get to places just as God is ready to have somebody click the shutter"... Ansel Adams
www.amazinglight.smugmug.com
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Super Moderator
Awesome subject. Nice details. Yes, bummer it did not at least turn its head a bit back but I can see why you like it with that beautiful silky water. The bow-wake is excellent. I find that LR's shadows slider often does a great job (when used judiciously of course).
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Avian Moderator

Originally Posted by
Joseph Przybyla
Hi Brian, from the home of Coor's Beer, welcome to BPN. I like the image a lot. Already noted that the merganser is angling slightly away. I look forward to more of your images. Thank you for sharing.
Joe, thanks for the welcome! Yes, Coors is just a 5 min drive :-)
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Avian Moderator

Originally Posted by
Jonathan Ashton
I see the image was saved as png as opposed to jpeg, I am not familiar wit the former but does that affect sRGB?
I like the bow wave and the colours of the bird, I know you have some beautiful light over there but the water does look a rather electric blue to me.
Jonathan, png can retain the color profile but I realized I was "quick saving" in PS and not embedding the color profile. Will do from now on.
I actually did not touch the water - only overall color, contrast, tone and sharpening. It was the most unique within the entire series of shots on this bird.
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Avian Moderator

Originally Posted by
Daniel Cadieux
Awesome subject. Nice details. Yes, bummer it did not at least turn its head a bit back but I can see why you like it with that beautiful silky water. The bow-wake is excellent. I find that LR's shadows slider often does a great job (when used judiciously of course).
Daniel, I certainly use the shadow slider in LR and I actually did not touch it on this photo, but it was just for overall 'feel', not intentionally to alter the wake areas. That said, were you implying that using that slider could have enhanced the bow wake area?
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Super Moderator
Hey Brian, no, the bow-wake is perfect as is! I was only implying for shadows, but not necessarily for this image.
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Avian Moderator

Originally Posted by
Daniel Cadieux
Hey Brian, no, the bow-wake is perfect as is! I was only implying for shadows, but not necessarily for this image.
Excellent, thanks!