Buff-Crested Bustard Male- Eupodotis ruficrista gindiana

[John Lowin]

This image is from the Masi Mara, Kenya. I was fortunate to have come upon this BCB male, crowing for a mate. Unfortunately no audio on this scanned slide image. I hope you like it. C and C welcome, I'm here to learn. - John

Nikon F5
Nikkor 200mm f/2/8
Kodak E100 VS
Handheld

[Judy Lynn Malloch]

Awesome pose, low angle and the open beak is great. A gorgeous captured moment. What I am not sure of is the feather detail. Is it possibly over sharpened ? The rest of the image does not appear to be so it has me slightly puzzled John. Thanks so much for sharing.

[John Lowin]

Thanks for your comments. Greatly appreciated.

[Tony Whitehead]

Superb calling pose. I agree with Judy that the OP is oversharpened but think the repost to not sharpened enough. Have tried a version with some selective sharpening on the plumage, desaturating the greens a little and applying a corner burn. Original is in Adobe RGB which will be affecting how the colours are displayed in most web browsers - posting in sRGB is advised

[John Lowin]

Tony,

Thank you once again for an excellent solution. Thanks also for the sRGB tip, I'm sure that has affected my uploads. When you selectively sharpened the plumage, how did you make that selection. I assume that you used PhotoKit Sharpener, to do the sharpening. Many thanks, - John

[Tony Whitehead]

Tony,
When you selectively sharpened the plumage, how did you make that selection. I assume that you used PhotoKit Sharpener, to do the sharpening. Many thanks, - John

Yes, John. I just used Photokit Sharpener - creative sharpening brush.

[David Thomasson]

Great capture. You surely caught a moment.

I'm seeing what look like masking tracks and halos around the subject. Did you mask out the bird and then blur the background? There's an abrupt transition from blurred to unblurred here:

[Linda Robbins]

You captured such a wonderful calling pose on this handsome bird. Tony's repost has the sharpening about right. And I am impressed with David's moving line...very high tech! I would be helpful if you would include all the techs for the image.

[John Lowin]

Hi David,

You are correct. I created a duplicate layer, used "Noiseware" on the duplicate layer. Then created a layer mask and with a black brush, erased the bird and a portion of foreground. Suggestions for a better workflow would be greatly appreciated. Thanks. - John

[John Lowin]

You captured such a wonderful calling pose on this handsome bird. Tony's repost has the sharpening about right. And I am impressed with David's moving line...very high tech! I would be helpful if you would include all the techs for the image.

You mention I should include all the techs for this image. This is a scanned slide, I do not have detailed exposure data for it. If you meant something else, please explain. I'm here to learn, so all suggestions are eagerly solicited. Thanks. - John

[John Lowin]

Hello David,

I really appreciate your comments on my image of the Buff Crested Bustard. If you have the time, and don't mind, I would appreciate your instruction on improving my novice technique. Many Thanks. - John Lowin

Great capture. You surely caught a moment.

I'm seeing what look like masking tracks and halos around the subject. Did you mask out the bird and then blur the background? There's an abrupt transition from blurred to unblurred here:

John Lowin
BPN Member

Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Wisconsin
Posts: 76

Hi David,

You are correct. I created a duplicate layer, used "Noiseware" on the duplicate layer. Then created a layer mask and with a black brush, erased the bird and a portion of foreground. Suggestions for a better workflow would be greatly appreciated. Thanks. - John

[David Thomasson]

Hi David,

You are correct. I created a duplicate layer, used "Noiseware" on the duplicate layer. Then created a layer mask and with a black brush, erased the bird and a portion of foreground. Suggestions for a better workflow would be greatly appreciated. Thanks. - John

Hey John ... as a general rule of thumb, if you're going to do anything to a background independent of the subject, mask off the subject first and make alterations on that masked layer. This is especially important when blurring a background, but also for NR, which can have a mild blurring effect. If you do either of these before masking, you're likely to get halos around the subject.

To prevent sudden transitions from foreground to background, you can apply a black gradient to the mask after you blur or run NR on the unmasked part. This will fade the effect.

Here's an illustration. After masking out the subject, I first made a levels adjustment to brighten the foreground, then applied a black gradient from the top down to keep that from brightening the background. Second, I used a curves adjustment layer to darken the background, then applied a black gradient from the bottom of the mask to keep that from darkening the foreground.

The eraser tool is evil. I rarely ever use it.

[John Lowin]

Thank you David,
Using your image as the subject, I would either mask/make the selection of the buck using Quick-Mask, or a combination of the Magic Wand and Lasso tools. I believe I selected the BCB using Quick-Mask. Is there a better method? - John

[David Thomasson]

Thank you David,
Using your image as the subject, I would either mask/make the selection of the buck using Quick-Mask, or a combination of the Magic Wand and Lasso tools. I believe I selected the BCB using Quick-Mask. Is there a better method? - John

The method generally depends on the image. When you have clean edges and high contrast, the Quick Select tool (in CS3) works well. Often I'll use that for the first cut, then switch to Quick Mask mode to clean up ragged edges.

Sometimes one of the color channels will have very high contrast; in those cases, use Quick Select on that channel, or occasionally copy the channel and use dodge and burn tools to turn it into a black/white mask.

[John Lowin]

Thanks again for the great suggestions. How would I go about handling a similar situation with a male lion with all the fine hair of the mane? - John

[David Thomasson]

Thanks again for the great suggestions. How would I go about handling a similar situation with a male lion with all the fine hair of the mane? - John

That's when you have to dig deeper into the craft of masking. :o