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Thread: How much time to spend on beak

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    Default How much time to spend on beak

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    Shot this Chipping Sparrow in eastern Oregon (before the fires and smoke came). Shot with Canon 5D4, 500 mm II at point blank range-right at MFD. I darkened the BG and slightly raised the exposure and vibrance of the bird. There is some remnants of grass seeds on the beak and face. How much time would you spend removing these?

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    Macro and Flora Moderator Jonathan Ashton's Avatar
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    Good idea to drop exposure on BG I would be tempted to go further and also tone the log down. The sparrow is well shown, the beak - how long is a piece of string? Whatever you did worked well so it was worth it.
    I would also suggest posting a larger image (they can be up to 1920px on the longest axis and the image does not exceed 600K).

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    Avian Moderator Brian Sump's Avatar
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    James, I like the composition here. Light appears pretty steep but handled pretty well overall.

    As far as the beak, it didn't stand out to me. A spot healing brush on that brightest spot should handle it swiftly and effectively.

    Agree with Jon on toning down the perch a tad.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Jonathan Ashton View Post
    Good idea to drop exposure on BG I would be tempted to go further and also tone the log down. The sparrow is well shown, the beak - how long is a piece of string? Whatever you did worked well so it was worth it.
    I would also suggest posting a larger image (they can be up to 1920px on the longest axis and the image does not exceed 600K).
    Thank you for your thoughts. I will try that. The background is lava rock-hence the "mottled" appearance. I will try to darken the log; I am afraid if I try to further darken the overall BG I will exaggerate the mottled appearance of the lava rock.

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    Yes, the light was harsh at about 10:00 AM. With the dark lava rock for BG. Fortunately he turned the right direction so I only had dark shadows down a small slice of his back.

    Quote Originally Posted by Brian Sump View Post
    James, I like the composition here. Light appears pretty steep but handled pretty well overall.

    As far as the beak, it didn't stand out to me. A spot healing brush on that brightest spot should handle it swiftly and effectively.

    Agree with Jon on toning down the perch a tad.

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    Wildlife Moderator Steve Kaluski's Avatar
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    Hi James, I like the placement of the subject and the curvature of the perch, however... the image is dark (chocked in the darks concealing any detail), Contrasty and has a blue cast dominating the image. If you are using LR then back off with Contrast & Blacks and use the Histogram to see if you are chocking the darks or blowing the whites. Quick question, when did you last calibrate your monitor and this needs to be done at least once a month or when the monitor tells you.

    Techs are good so no issues there.

    Reduced the blues, reduced Blacks & Contrast, added a bit more Temp in the WB and used some negative Dehaze. Remember, this is working from your OP so it's not going to be 100%

    Hope this helps.

    TFS
    Steve
    Post Production: It’s ALL about what you do with the tools and not, which brand of tool you use.

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    I like it. It shows the setting the bird lives in. The pose are framing are nice.

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    Bird is attentive and sharp, but the steep light is tough. The scene is also really busy and keeps the bird from commanding maximum attention. The bird is pretty crammed into the bottom left - makes sense to keep the log - but I might lop some off the top to minimize the surrounds and put more focus on the subject.

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    Super Moderator Daniel Cadieux's Avatar
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    What were your settings? Asking as the BG is rather pronounced, so wondering if you could have opened up the aperture, or maybe you were already fully opened up ? Good head angle from the sparrow. To answer your question: spot removal tool and/or patch tool should take no less than 30 seconds to clean up that bill and face.

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    Thanks to everyone for your thoughts. A couple of take aways for me; I do not adjust WB as consistently as I should and I need to adjust my aperture in the field more than I do. I have tendency to make my settings and then fire away, oblivious to changing situations. I was attempting to get BIF coming to a perch and had set up at ISO 500 (auto ISO), SS 1/2500, and aperture of 8.0 when this bird landed on this log. Certainly had lots of light so had virtually unlimited choices. I can see now that f/4.0 would have been better. At MFD would have lost DOF and may have lost sharpness of tail, but would have made a better picture with the lava rock in the background.

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