I find photographing glossy plumages quite challenging, especially in overcast conditions, as the birds almost invariably come out black. I tried my best here to bring out the sheen by using fill flash. I processed the RAW file twice, first to bring out the colours in the feathers, and then again to optimised the background and the perch. I then pasted the latter onto the first as a layer, and then erased the effect of the second layer on the bird. Comments will be welcomed!
Camera Model: Canon EOS-1D Mark III
Date/Time: 2008:11:10 062:36
Shutter speed: 1/500 sec
Aperture: 9
Exposure mode: Tv
Exposure compensation: +1/3
Flash: On
Metering mode: Multi-segment
ISO: 800
Focal length: 500mm
Last edited by Chris van Rooyen; 11-13-2008 at 10:13 AM.
Reason: Spelling mistake
You did a great job of depicting the glossy plumage in all its glory Chris. Some may find the perch dominant but I like it as is. Great BG too. Nice use of HDR here (processing the RAW file twice for different parts of the image).
You've done a great job on the iridescence , Chris. These are especially challenging with the dark cheeks. My only suggestion is a square crop to reduce the weight of the perch and some burning to darken the BG. You may find layer masking gives more flexibility than erasing a layer as you can easily redo areas by changing colour from white to black rather than relying on history. Very cool image.
Right on with the porblem with capturing the irridencense. My experience has been that though digital cameras provide a great deal of lattitude; and that post processing can help, the range of colour values and dynamics of irridesence can tax digital sensors; since they are actually analogue. It is the processor chips that have the task of rendering the analogue to digitial and here is where the problems can occure. That said, you did a good job on the post processing. I use the same techniques myself. If I may, I might have use another mask and added a little more gausian blue to the bg to smooth it out some. Great shot.
A THOUGHT: I know Burchell's starlings are particularly difficult Chris and you have done so well here. I do find the log a bit conspicuous however. Rather than cropping it, it might also be an idea just to darken it a bit. . . .
Burchell's Starling
2:36
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