Song Sparrow Again
What do you think of the bg?
Another very dark, overcast morning here. Note the ISO. This bird popped out of the spirea bush. The image is sort of what I've been on the alert for for weeks now - bird in autumn colors. But ...maybe this isn't it ???? An image of a bird in the bush includes lots of bush :o
Comments and suggestions much appreciated.
Gail
Canon 50D with 500mm at f/4.5, 1/80 sec, eval metering with 0 comp, ISO 1250
Hi Gail the bg is not bad but the fg is detracting, Usually elements in front of the subject oof will detract. You did real well making a very sharp image at the slow shutter speed Big Congrats !!!
btw with so little light might want to experiment with flash as main? Might be interesting !!!
Hi Gail,
I like the composition and capture...:D You can clone out the oof branch that takes away from your main subject, and reconstruct the bird's body...its going to take a little time; don't know if you want to go that route; or just wait for the next opportunity...:cool:
I love the pic, and find it a delicate pose. I thought maybe because it was an overcast day that the blues would be prevalent and tried to add more yellow (the opposite of blue, via colour balance). I think you know your birds pretty well, so you will know if this is heading in the right direction. Also just a little black to the neutral via selective colour to bring out more contrast to the bird on an overcast day. :)
Last edited by Jackie Schuknecht; 11-10-2008 at 09:18 PM.
Gail, I like your image I think it's cute w/ the branches-Jackie's re-post is perfect!
I went a different way on this one. I lightened all the midtones using levels in CS4 to quiet down some of the BG and then painted the intensity back into the bird and main branch so they would "pop" from the BG. I also cloned the twigs coming out of that poor birds head!
I like that the bird is submerged in its environment - I think the bird just needs to be more of the focal point.
Thanks for the re-post Jackie. You were absolutely right about the overcast light making the image shift to the blue. The colors in the re-post look quite natural. Can you give me a few more details about how you did this in PS?
Gus and Alfred - right, right, right about the oof branch in front of the bird. Funny thing was I was so concerned about the bg that the front branch never entered by view. Duh?!!? The reminder about using a flash (and a beamer) is an excellent idea.
Thanks to all for your suggestions and comments
Gail
Jules - This was my initial thought as well. Thanks for sharing the re-post.Originally Posted by Julie Kenward
Thanks for the detailed suggestions.
Gail
Gail,
To get white balance you can do it in camera raw if you think the colour is off. First pick an area in the photo that is close to white (but not overexposed), you can check using your colour picker. It will give you RGB values and you can see if one colour is more predominant than another, hence colour cast. Next click on that close to white spot with the colour balance eyedropper and see the results. I do everything mostly by eye. Sometimes you have to try different spots until it looks right. Blue and magenta colour casts seem most common.
If you forget to do it in camera raw, you can do it in PP by using the colour picker and then check again but this time, if you say have a blue colour cast go into colour balance and select the opposite. I do it by eye again.
Also if you shot an all white bird on a light BG you could go into selective colour, select white and take away the cyans.(If you have a blue colour cast) Just some ideas for you. I am sure other people have different and better ways to do it.
Jackie and Julie
Special thanks for all your suggestions. I went back to my image and unsaturated the yellow & orange and warmed the color balance a tad, then saturated and upped the contrast on the bird. Also upped the overall blacks a tad.
Thanks ever so much. It isn't a great image, but the bird does pop a quite bit more now.
Gail
Fantastic! Isn't it great how hearing other people's suggestions can help us all better find our own voice? I love that about BPN!
I'm probably the contrarian here ;) Of all the shots posted, I prefer the original. I found Jackie's one a tad too dark and Julie's one have the colors of the surrounding look too washed out and too bright. So Gail's original seems to have struck a balance somehow. I am not one who thinks a 100% clean background is a must but this one does seem to be a bit too busy. Good thing is the colors of the bird and its surrounding are different enough that the viewers...err..most viewers should be able to tell them apart with ease :)
Last edited by Desmond Chan; 11-11-2008 at 02:12 PM.
The middle way???
Hi Desmond
Thanks for the comments. Evaluating images via different monitors and different browser is faulty at best, but I do appreciate your comments. MostlyI think I saw what you saw and I tried to walk the line between the re-posts. Hopefully that will show up in the image I've attached here. I didn't get rid of the branch at the head nearly as well as Julie did.
I agree that one is not likely to miss the bird for the bush, and I would like the bird to stand out (i.e., pop) from the bg and that oof branch in the fg.
Go figure, eh????
Cheers
Gail
PS _ When I looked at my re-post that is attached to this message, it didn't look any better. :( But comparing the first and last just on my monitor shows a marked difference?????
Last edited by Gail Spitler; 11-11-2008 at 02:53 PM.
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