Oriental GBH

[Randy Stout]

This handsome fellow was on the shore at the Venice Rookery. He was very cooperative, and I was able to try several different setups.

I liked the background effect, reminds me of an oriental painting. Comments appreciated.

I kept the contrast down a bit to further the painted look.

D300 500mm f/4 with 1.4 TC f/5.6 ISO 1000 Gitzo Wimb V2

Randy

[denise ippolito]

Randy I like the BG it does have an oriental flair- The crop is nice and these portrait style images have made me want to post one! I think this is sharp enough-but It appears a bit flat- not sure why. But your eye is nice and clear and I love the overall feeling to this one.

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Great details, composition and BG. The color temperature is too low for my taste, it has a slight blue cast.

[Doug Brown]

Nice pose and crop. Sharpness is excellent. Here's a repost without the blue cast.

[Randy Stout]

Thanks for the input Denise and Axel:

I redid the color temperature and cleaned up one healing brush mark under the bill.

Randy

[Doug Brown]

Much better!

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Yes, the repost looks much better. If that is something you do, you could clean up the white spots on the tip of the upper mandible.

[Randy Stout]

Doug:

I was working on my redo while you were posting yours! I went even a bit warmer, so people have lots of choice. Mine may be a bit too warm, after looking at yours.

I will be curious what people think. Thanks for the repost!

Did you just change the color temp, or did you do some other tweaks?

Randy

[Randy Stout]

Axel:

I go back and forth about cleaning. This is a pretty small bit of down/feathers, and if the bird wasn't so big in the frame, probably wouldn't be much of an issue.

Thanks.

Randy

[denise ippolito]

Randy, I guess the color cast is why it looked a bit flat to me-but either re-post looks great!

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Randy,
I'm leaning towards Doug's re-post......but yours does pop even more......maybe soften the darker stem behind the head a bit more???...just to even out the BG more. Very nice feel to this one!

[Doug Brown]

You can raise the color temperature directly. In my case I adjusted the color balance sliders in PS.

[Fabs Forns]

I think Doug's repost is more natural looking. What I'd do is neutralize the whites in Nik Color Select. It works wonders. Nice compos, btw and yes, it looks oriental.