This image was created with the Canon 800mm f/5.6L IS lens and the EOS-7D. ISO 800. Evaluative metering +2 stops: 1/125 sec. at f/5.6. White balance 9,000K.
Harry's Crane Pool, Bosque del Apache NWR, NM.
Don't be shy; all comments welcome.
This image was created with the Canon 800mm f/5.6L IS lens and the EOS-7D. ISO 800. Evaluative metering +2 stops: 1/125 sec. at f/5.6. White balance 9,000K.
Harry's Crane Pool, Bosque del Apache NWR, NM.
Don't be shy; all comments welcome.
BIRDS AS ART Blog: great info and lessons, lots of images with our legendary BAA educational Captions; we will not sell you junk. 30+ years of long lens experience/e-mail with gear questions.
BIRDS AS ART Online Store: we will not sell you junk. 35 years of long lens experience. Please e-mail with gear questions.
Check out the new SONY e-Guide and videos that I did with Patrick Sparkman here. Ten percent discount for BPN members,
E-mail me at samandmayasgrandpa@att.net.
:) I really like this one, Artie.
Very nice to get a "single" bird in sillouette.
Nice low angle and the little dribble of water ties this image together for me. I think I might like it even better if the
top reddish line was less prominent.
Very colorful, Artie. The open beak and the water droplets really add to an already interesting pose.
Artie...
I always like sillouehetts.
Theresi something a little funky going on between the brighter water and the darker orange area transitions above and to the right ofthe head. Doesn't show up as a smooth transition?
Also. really nit picking, perhaps a clone to remove what looks like a splash on the far right? (could be plant material)
Thanks for the suggestions Jim. Not sure how I created or missed that ugly transition....
BIRDS AS ART Blog: great info and lessons, lots of images with our legendary BAA educational Captions; we will not sell you junk. 30+ years of long lens experience/e-mail with gear questions.
BIRDS AS ART Online Store: we will not sell you junk. 35 years of long lens experience. Please e-mail with gear questions.
Check out the new SONY e-Guide and videos that I did with Patrick Sparkman here. Ten percent discount for BPN members,
E-mail me at samandmayasgrandpa@att.net.
Artie...
I'm always amazed at what others eyes pick up in my stuff, no matter how long I stare at it before posting :)
Interesting image. Parts that I like -- Strong silhouette, position of the crane, open beak and the water drip from the beak.
The image feels over saturated to me. I see your WB was at 9000K. I played a bit by opening this in raw and decreasing the color temp. It feels more natural to me that way. I also see a bit of a halo around the cranes body. I'm guessing the funky artifacts noted by Jim are just a result of jpeg compression.
Yeah, the SAT is a personal choice. I actually lightened it and de-SAted a bit before saving. I would love to see your version. Are you seeing artifacts in the original or the repost.
The ugly transition stuff was actually in the optimized TIFF. I must have been in a drunken stupor but I do not drink....
BIRDS AS ART Blog: great info and lessons, lots of images with our legendary BAA educational Captions; we will not sell you junk. 30+ years of long lens experience/e-mail with gear questions.
BIRDS AS ART Online Store: we will not sell you junk. 35 years of long lens experience. Please e-mail with gear questions.
Check out the new SONY e-Guide and videos that I did with Patrick Sparkman here. Ten percent discount for BPN members,
E-mail me at samandmayasgrandpa@att.net.
BIRDS AS ART Blog: great info and lessons, lots of images with our legendary BAA educational Captions; we will not sell you junk. 30+ years of long lens experience/e-mail with gear questions.
BIRDS AS ART Online Store: we will not sell you junk. 35 years of long lens experience. Please e-mail with gear questions.
Check out the new SONY e-Guide and videos that I did with Patrick Sparkman here. Ten percent discount for BPN members,
E-mail me at samandmayasgrandpa@att.net.
"Color, shape and form" define the beauty of this photograph, Artie.
Your repost takes it to spectacular heights.
Golden colors are too good here Guruji , lovely image and repost takes this over the top
TFS
Thanks Keith. I actually prefer yours; it looks more natural.
And thanks Bill. And Harshad.
BIRDS AS ART Blog: great info and lessons, lots of images with our legendary BAA educational Captions; we will not sell you junk. 30+ years of long lens experience/e-mail with gear questions.
BIRDS AS ART Online Store: we will not sell you junk. 35 years of long lens experience. Please e-mail with gear questions.
Check out the new SONY e-Guide and videos that I did with Patrick Sparkman here. Ten percent discount for BPN members,
E-mail me at samandmayasgrandpa@att.net.
The repost looks good. It is a personal choice, so either way but the colors are gorgeous. Artie I like the open bill and water drops.
Awesome image...the contrast between the crane & BG adds a lot of impact...interesting reflection too!
I like the pose and composition. However, shooting at K9000 basically gives an un-naturaly warm effect. I assume the colours in reality weren't so rich and saturated. It would be interesting to hear what people think about creating this over-saturation effect - does this belong to the 'digital creation' department or maybe 100% nature photography....?
I am a big fan of higher saturation..really like the first one, like the top reddish line and the same reddish color around the shadow...Artful...:)
Your repost works well guru.. loved the water droplets from the beak..
superb repost very well done.
i would still try 1 round of NR to give smoothen the bg's noise over red and yellow.
Stunning lighting and great timing to catch the water droplets as the crane lifts its bill from the water. Super repost Artie. Already a favourite.
Interesting point. How often does our optimized image match the colors and light that existed at the moment of capture? Rarely. And after that, it is just a matter of degree so who makes the call? It's like cloning out a single pebble or totally smoothing out a distracting background. Once you have started down the slope we are all in the same boat.
I concentrate on making images that make me (and hopefully a few other folks) happy and that sell. I do not worry much about categorizing them (unless I am entering a contest). And I always let folks know what I have done (as I did here).
BIRDS AS ART Blog: great info and lessons, lots of images with our legendary BAA educational Captions; we will not sell you junk. 30+ years of long lens experience/e-mail with gear questions.
BIRDS AS ART Online Store: we will not sell you junk. 35 years of long lens experience. Please e-mail with gear questions.
Check out the new SONY e-Guide and videos that I did with Patrick Sparkman here. Ten percent discount for BPN members,
E-mail me at samandmayasgrandpa@att.net.
Good suggestion for those who are concerned with noise :) Actually I seem to recall that somehow selecting the upper layer was how I got into trouble with that ugly transition in the original post. Thanks for visiting.
On another topic, have you and Kiran ever photographed together???
BIRDS AS ART Blog: great info and lessons, lots of images with our legendary BAA educational Captions; we will not sell you junk. 30+ years of long lens experience/e-mail with gear questions.
BIRDS AS ART Online Store: we will not sell you junk. 35 years of long lens experience. Please e-mail with gear questions.
Check out the new SONY e-Guide and videos that I did with Patrick Sparkman here. Ten percent discount for BPN members,
E-mail me at samandmayasgrandpa@att.net.
Actually, I and quite a few other photographers all around the world are doing our best to match the colours and light as much as we can so it will look natural and not over saturated.
I have no problem with the kind of "digital creation" you have done but I would suggest maybe having a dedicated forum for that as done in other similar websites.
BIRDS AS ART Blog: great info and lessons, lots of images with our legendary BAA educational Captions; we will not sell you junk. 30+ years of long lens experience/e-mail with gear questions.
BIRDS AS ART Online Store: we will not sell you junk. 35 years of long lens experience. Please e-mail with gear questions.
Check out the new SONY e-Guide and videos that I did with Patrick Sparkman here. Ten percent discount for BPN members,
E-mail me at samandmayasgrandpa@att.net.
Keith's repost is the one to go for me. Love the silhouette and light. Definitively a wall hanger.
I have no interest in starting a new digital creation forum as I am more of a documentary type of bird photographer.
As to the "painterly crane" repost - I did not boost saturation at all. I just adjusted levels and contrast which IMO was quite appropriate in order to achieve a natural presentation rather than the washed out low contrast original.
There is a big difference between deliberatly shooting with totally unnatural WB setting of 9000K in order to get an artificailly overstaturated image as you have done in this post and adjusting an image within what most photographers will agree as natural and acceptable boundaries as I did in the crane repost.
Love the compo and low angle
Speaking as just one of 'most photographers' I do not agree Ofer. People are not colour-calibrated and as far as I can tell Artie's photo shows exactly the sort of colours I would expect at the time of day the pic was taken. How Artie got there does not seem relevant. Apart from anything else wildlife photography is supposed to be fun. Documenting wildlife does not rule out creativity and this photo is a great shot whichever way you look at it.
By increasing the contrast in Amy's image you made the REDs redder. Your comments reek of a God-like all-knowing photographer among us: "I am more of a documentary type of bird photographer." "...and adjusting an image within what most photographers will agree as natural and acceptable boundaries."
ps: Dear All-knowing God of Photography: I would be interested in hearing your comments on the work of Ansel Adams. From what I understand his final images looked nothing like what he saw.
BIRDS AS ART Blog: great info and lessons, lots of images with our legendary BAA educational Captions; we will not sell you junk. 30+ years of long lens experience/e-mail with gear questions.
BIRDS AS ART Online Store: we will not sell you junk. 35 years of long lens experience. Please e-mail with gear questions.
Check out the new SONY e-Guide and videos that I did with Patrick Sparkman here. Ten percent discount for BPN members,
E-mail me at samandmayasgrandpa@att.net.
Thanks Phil. I agree 100% that photography should be fun. Fun for the person who creates the image, and fun for the folks who view it. I visited your web site and was sorry to here of your (and other's) loss: Makwela. And congrats and mazel tov on the Nature's Best Highly Honored Landscape image. It's nice to know that they group antelope-scapes with landscapes!
BIRDS AS ART Blog: great info and lessons, lots of images with our legendary BAA educational Captions; we will not sell you junk. 30+ years of long lens experience/e-mail with gear questions.
BIRDS AS ART Online Store: we will not sell you junk. 35 years of long lens experience. Please e-mail with gear questions.
Check out the new SONY e-Guide and videos that I did with Patrick Sparkman here. Ten percent discount for BPN members,
E-mail me at samandmayasgrandpa@att.net.
Thanks for the nice the supportive comments Artie. What was amazing about Makwela and the dominant male, Wallys, was that you could travel Southern Africa and meet people who knew her/them. Even Sir Richard Branson would have known her as his lodge is sited in that corner of Sabi Sands. World famous wild leopards !
Thanks also for comments on my blesbok-scape. Natures Best defined their landscape section as 'Dramatic scenes and unusual perspectives of land providing expansive views'. Nothing a few blesbok cannot improve :). I can seldom 'see' good landscapes - so I usually have to include an animal or two.
To get back to the point a bit: Silhouettes. My shot was also a silhouette but in my case I was only able to make minute adjustments as the light in my photo was very subtle. Your silhouette by contrast has wonderful bold lighting that can be played around with. I always find that sunsets have a wide range of acceptable 'levels' settings - depending on taste, of course.
Dear Artie,
I am sure most people will smile when reading YOU referring to me as "Dear All-knowing God of photography".
I won't get into this discussion as it becomes too personal and unprofessional for me. I assume this forum is about discussing and exchanging ideas in a professional and civilized way and I am going to respect this.
Cheers,
Ofer
Last edited by Ofer Levy; 12-13-2009 at 06:27 PM.
BIRDS AS ART Blog: great info and lessons, lots of images with our legendary BAA educational Captions; we will not sell you junk. 30+ years of long lens experience/e-mail with gear questions.
BIRDS AS ART Online Store: we will not sell you junk. 35 years of long lens experience. Please e-mail with gear questions.
Check out the new SONY e-Guide and videos that I did with Patrick Sparkman here. Ten percent discount for BPN members,
E-mail me at samandmayasgrandpa@att.net.
Ofer,
When I was shooting film, I always had an 81A/B and C in my vest.
I use my WB the same way I formerly used my warming filters.
Product photographers are color fidelity freaks(they have to be). Nature photographers can choose to be color fidelity freaks or they can choose to allow themselves to be creative with their colors.
Dead on colors, desaturated or over-saturated, it is the artist choice.
Long before I owned a digital camera, I was changing the WB (with filters) and color saturation(with film choice, filters and/or exposure).
So this image does not belong in a digital creation forum.
I encourage all of my students to open their eyes to the possibilities.
Knowing how to control WB and Color Fidelity/Saturation just adds that many more arrows into a photographer's creative quiver.
James