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Thread: Wing and a Prayer II

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    Default theme Wing and a Prayer II

    Kingfisher got another Mantis and I was lucky to be there

    R5
    EF 500 f4 ii tc 2 iii
    1000mm
    1/1600
    f8
    iso 2000
    Tripod with gimbal

    Topaz AI Sharpen, LRC, crop

    Bird is wild with no feedingName:  Kingfisher Mantis 1350.jpg
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Size:  581.6 KB
    Last edited by Daniel Cadieux; 03-29-2021 at 08:46 AM.

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    Avian Moderator Brian Sump's Avatar
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    Wayne, what a spectacular capture. To get close to this beauty with the Mantis in mouth is awesome.

    The bkg is very pretty with the green/blue transition.

    I think the biggest factor here is the light angle as it is a little too head-on and creating lots of shadows. You might consider moving the subject up and right in frame a little if you have the canvas.

    Also, I think there are a couple cloning remnants about mid way between the beak and perch?

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    BPN Member Andreas Liedmann's Avatar
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    Hi Wayne , for sure a cool image .
    The Mantis is a great addition .
    Light seemed to be quite harsh at the time of shooting , so not easy to deal with . So a bit more PP work might help to get it somewhat under control .

    For me your chosen contrast is a bit high , resulting in loss of detail in HL and SH . The HL do look blown .... can be maybe recovered when starting from scratch with the raw file . The best solution for this scenario is , to double process the file . Meaning processing the file twice ( one for the lights , second for the darks ) and combine them in PS .

    The crop / comp is a tiny bit too tight for my taste , I would like to see more room at the foot to see the virtual tail feathers .....

    BTW you need to save the file with an embedded color profile ; for web you have to choose sRGB !!!

    TFS Andreas

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    BPN Member Bill Dix's Avatar
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    Great capture; both you and the KF. I can understand the tight crop, to show the mantis well, and to keep the perch from overpowering the bird. Great HA. Harsh light and sun angle are the only problems for me. I've never tried Andreas' suggestion of double processing, but it might work. Cloning artifacts noted.

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    Hey Brian, Andreas and Bill,

    Thank you all for your valued input, tried to apply your recommendations and thought I would post this update to see if I am on the right track. I am not experienced in LRC or PS really so just play with the sliders but am working on this. I really appreciate your input once again and thank you
    Name:  Fisher and Mantis 2 1550.jpg
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    Super Moderator arash_hazeghi's Avatar
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    prey is beyond awesome, the poor light angle was unfortunate and nothing you can do about it now. the darks parts have no detail left as a result of strong side light unfortunaltey

    TFS
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    BPN Member Andreas Liedmann's Avatar
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    Hi Wayne ... good that you say you are not experienced with LR and PS . Makes it somehow easier to understand where some of the " issues " might come from .

    The RP is a real improvement , IMHO .

    Try to get your grips on basic image editing in LR and keep it simple . Each slider that you move has an influence on the image quality .... not always for the better !!!! Be careful with any form of contrast enhancement .... it does kill potential detail when overdone , or amplifies noise .

    There is a ton of tutorials on the web ....

    Cheers Andreas

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    Super Moderator Daniel Cadieux's Avatar
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    The repost is much, much better. The light itself does not seem too bad - it's the light ANGLE that hurt you here. The resulting shadows are too much to fix in post. You may also wish to remove the item on the head (patch tool should work well here). The prey item is super cool, I love it. Good perch and BG. On the repost there is a streak below the perch that should go. What an awesome sight you got to witness here.

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    Thanks all, will take the image back into PS and tinker a bit more. The sun angle wasn't working with me for the best pics actually, there was quite a battle with this Mantis which was still very much alive in this pic. There are better pics in terms of action but the bird head is tilted to the right thereby making the whole eye in complete shadow and difficult to process into a decent balanced picture - but then again maybe that's just my lack of post processing skill.

    Thank you all again for your time and honest input

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