Assignment:Holiday Colors

[Gary Esman]

Fall is a holiday right? 50D, 100-400 mm IS L, shot at 400 mm, f/5.6, 1/800, iso 320, AWB.

[Gus Cobos]

Hi Gary,
I like the capture, the background is beautiful. Your subject needs to be bigger in frame. You did capture a good head angle and good eye contact. The whites on this young fellow are running a tad hot. I took the liberty of working your image by cropping from the right side, from the top and from the left side of the frame to remove some of the negative space, and to make your goose a tad larger in frame. I blurred the background more selective sharpened the eye, adjusted the mid-tones, and set the black point. See if this presents best to you...:cool:

[Jeff Cashdollar]

Gary,

Exposure techs look solid. Remember to always protect the highlights, no matter how small in the image. In this case some neg exposure compensation might be needed to keep whites in check (assuming AV mode). Is the histogram clipped on the right side - do you have highlights turned-on to check LCD, adjust and re shot.

I love Canada Geese, it is migration time for these beauties. I like the repost, but perfer something in between.

[Lance Peters]

Hi Gary - good advice above - especially the use of the highlight warning - turn it on and your LCD will flash the overexposed area's to warn you.
I might prefer Gus's bird on your BG - The softer BG appeals to my personal taste.

Arties book has a wealth of info - if you dont already have it.
tfs

[Cheryl Flory]

I like the sharper looking eye in the repost. Is there a way to soften/blur out the background just a bit more? great eye contact.

[Bill Dix]

Lovely fall colors in the BG, and good eye contact. Good advice given above, and repost helps. Nicely done.

[Gary Esman]

WOW! Thank you for being honest! This is why I joined BPN so I could improve. Warm fuzzies feel good for awhile but I want to get better.

Oddly enough the histogram was not clipped at all to the right but the whites did look hot. I reopened the original file and did a curves adjustment to tone them down. That seemed to have blurred the BG some more. Some more sharpening and this is the result. Thanks again for the advice.

[Alfred Forns]

Hi Gary

Glad you reposted the image !!! Brings up some important PS points. Your curve adjustment did help out white areas by toning down but look at the feathers ... they are looking a bit strange form the lack of contrast !!!

When going after the whites or any small area do so locally ... select the area you want feather it and just work on that part so the rest is unaffected. btw going after birds like this one, soft light is about all you can have for good results. Obtaining shadow detail without blowing the whites is difficult !!!

I like the crop and look of the goose .. and one sweet bg !!! The crop by Gus sure makes a difference, still have the bg but bird is larger in frame !!!