I made this image on 12/29/07 off of the Barnegat Inlet jetty. Conditions were very overcast. My gut tells me I really like this image while my brain tells me there is a lot that could be better. If you are familiar with the Barnegat jetty, you know that you can't really get down to water level although I know I could have got lower than I was. And I am not happy with the bills against the water.
Camera was a 30D with a 400mm f/5.6L lens with flash tripod-mounted.
I worked on this a bit. A different crop, adding canvas in front of birds. (I know I cropped too close to the tail, discovered it too late)
Selectively sharpen the front duck. Multiplied the whites a couple of times, but it may be necessary to go back to the RAW file for more details, if any there. Last, I got the white point in curves, to get rid of the strong magenta cast.
Ah, and I removed the ripple merging with the bill of the second duck.
Hope you don't mind :)
First of all, thank you for the critiques. I feel like I am learning a lot even though sometimes I don't think it shows. :( The critiques can, at the same time, be very educational and just a bit humbling. I must admit that that after reading the feedback, I find it very fair but also a bit embarrassing. :o I ask myself how could I have missed all those things? Even more embarrassing is when I read your suggestions and don't quite know what they mean. But I won't let any of that stand in my way. Onward! :)
In some respects, I guess I feel prey to the "everything is relative" notion. I shoot wide open so much that in most two bird situations one is in focus and the second clearly OOF. This time I stopped down to f/10 or 11 and the two Harlequins were so close to one another that the image looked sharp to me. And I flat out missed that the first bird was a tad soft. My error. Once again Mea Culpa.
Now on to your reworked image, Fabs. I am going to be very honest here in an effort to learn as much as I can. I appreciate you taking the time to rework my image. I guess I expect to see "major" (whatever that is) changes. But as I scroll back and forth between the two version, I am hard pressed to see the differences. Maybe its my eye; maybe its my computer; or maybe the differences are subtle.
Obviously I can see the re-crop and adding canvas to the front. And I can see the ripplectomy. In my opinion it helps a lot. I assume that was a cloning job. I also assume that by selectively sharpening you mean that you lassoed the front duck and sharpened it.
Quite honestly, I got lost on "Multiplied the whites a couple of times, but it may be necessary to go back to the RAW file for more details, if any there. Last, I got the white point in curves, to get rid of the strong magenta cast." I am not sure I understand what all this means. And again as I scroll back and forth, I am not seeing the difference. Again it is probably my eye and I am not looking at the right thing.
I know you have your hands full responding to so may posts in any given day without being asked to double back as I am doing. I believe I got my $20 worth (membership fee) in the first few days. But I still have so much more to learn. I think I have the skill. I think I have the ability to learn. I just need to garner more experience. And that comes from applying what I learn here. Getting out and shooting more. And taking time to master Lightroom and Photoshop. And getting more feedback here. Sounds like a circle to me! :)
I used a sharpening brush, but what you can do is sharpen on a layer and erase the rest of the effect, I have a small tutorial on how to do this in the Digital Workflow Forum.
Download the two images and put them side to side and you will see the color difference. I went to Curves, used the white dropper (the one ot the right) on the white part of the birds face, to render the whites white, and that took the cast away. I could also have used the mid-tone dropper (middle) on the gray and the black dropper (left) on those colors in the duck.
About the whites, they look a little hot and there's no detail to multiply, so going back to the RAW file may do it, also described in my short tutorial.
Hope this helps, if you need more help, please feel free to ask :)
Great suggestions so far. Ed, as for the magenta cast you can easily and mostly see the difference in the color of the water. That "magenta" cast in the first image is apparent throughout, but gone in the second (again, more noticeable in the water.) Many times its just those "subtle" nuances that make the difference between a good and a great photo.
How I would love to get such a close-up opportunity with these beautiful ducks!! Still a very good photo Ed.
Pair of Male Harlequin Ducks
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