Crested Barbet
Seeing some of Dorian's images from Southern Africa has prompted me to look again at some of my Botswana shots from July. This species was a lifer for me, taken under very challenging conditions. Fading evening light under a tree canopy. No tripod, so this was HH, standing braced against a tree trunk. Not perfect, but I always enjoy capturing a new species.
a1, 200-600 @ 600mm + 1.4 TC, ISO 10,000, 1/800s @ f/10 manual.
Hi Bill, you did well under the conditions and kudos in pushing the ISO and HH the kit. I like the contrast between the texture of the tree, juxtapose to the clean BKG behind the subject offing some nice separation.
Overall the image is dark even when taking into account the location, with a hefty blue biases in the tree, therefore it's muting agin the colours. As you say, these birds a beautiful and commonly known as the 'Fruit cocktail' bird because of the variety pop colours ib their plumage.
TFS
Steve
Post Production: It’s ALL about what you do with the tools and not, which brand of tool you use.
You did so well with this set of problems.Its an excellent recording of life the wild, spiderwebs, ancient dead timber and a beautiful bird.
Very nice Bill.....It looks a bit dark to me, but what a great looking bird....Nicely detailed...The HA works well with the OOF tree trunk..Well done, your efforts paid off....
Will
Thank you all. Yes, I agree I should brighten it up a bit.
You are looking at around or just under 2/3rds of a stop Bill, then you can boost the subject more.
Post Production: It’s ALL about what you do with the tools and not, which brand of tool you use.
I agree with the points above about overall image being a bit dark, hope to see a repost. I think you did good considering the conditions though. Very cool looking subject and good details seem to be there.
Thanks again. Truth is, the OP is sort of like I remember the scene in the fading evening light. But here's a repost with some brightening and a slight color shift. The bird may also be a bit sharper. I'm discovering, as I think one of you (Steve?) pointed out awhile back, Photoshop Smart Sharpen often works better than Topaz Sharpen AI.
Hi Bill, I'm really pleased you took the time to revisit the file, as you owe it to yourself and the Barbet.
OK, I make no bones about pushing PS juxtapose to third party software and probably Topaz has come on in leaps & bounds over recent years, but PS still is the preferred choice for the majority of adjustments, but Topaz is so easy and I can see why folk prefer it. Topaz Denoise/Topaz AI was a conversation I had with Joe, and I still stick to my thoughts, however TAI has it's place on certain images. likewise TDN, but neither work consistently on ALL images. However, the 'sharpening aspect' is not, nor will it be as good as PS, whether you use USM or Smart sharpen, personally I like USM, I have always liked it, but for many folk they want a 'one stop shop' and often Topaz delivers this, to a degree.
I think the image is better Bill, but with regards to sharpening when I take your OP and sharpen it via USM it's much crisper/sharper, but the trick is lower amounts and NOT pushing Threshold up to 1 or higher, it just creates crunchy sharpening, therefore if the original is sharp, you then only require minimal amounts when outputting for web, or any other medium.
Bill keep them coming, its great to see more African images, but also it might be hard too, reflecting on the great/fun times you had with Geoffrey.
Post Production: It’s ALL about what you do with the tools and not, which brand of tool you use.
Yeah, the lack of light was a lot to combat. I mean, your asking a lot with f/10 and ISO 10K. Why not at f/9 with that combo? Not that it would have made a huge difference here.
As to the image, I think the trunk simply overpowers the bird. That and birds looks kinda 'cut-and-paste' given the heavy posterization going on in the BG behind it. That sensation is heightened in the repost despite the other improvements.
Great bird, such cool plumage. The added brightness is better. I'm OK with the tree and its size but I can see where Dorian is going with it. I love the spider webbing on it. The subject does look rather cut-out, especially around the wingtip and tail. Good on you to use the tree-bracing technique to better stabilize the gear.
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