Belted Kingfisher with fish

[Binu John]

This photo was taken from a hide. This perch was placed near it's favourite fishing perch.

Canon EOS 40D
Canon 70 - 200mm f/4 L with Canon 1.4X extender

Settings: Manual exposure; 280mm, 1000 at f/5.6, ISO 400
Post processing: Removed some bright spots at the upper left corner; Adjusted Levels, Saturation, Cropped and Sharpened.

Cheers,
Binu John

[Juan Aragonés]

I like the eye contact and nice BG. The bird is placed a bit low in the frame in my opinion :)

[Dave Blinder]

Nice detail and setting Binu. This looks very oversharpened or like a large crop for my monitor. I'd consider burning some of the highlights on the bird, and the fish.

[Arthur Morris]

Binu, This perch is much better but is still too big for the bird. I would agree that this looks like a huge crop. Please post the full frame here in a new pane.

Nice pose and head angle.

I would suggest getting a copy of Alan Murphy's Guide to Songbird Set-up Photography so that you can learn lots more about perch selection: https://store.birdsasart.com/shop/ca....aspx?catid=33

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Head angle, eye contact and sharpness look good, the fish adds to it. Adding to the other comments, it looks a bit dark overall.

[Arthur Morris]

There was also a big color cast that I removed with Robert O'Toole's AverageBlur Color Balance trick. You can learn about that either in Digital Basics or in APTATS II. Then I lightened it as per Axel's suggestion. I gotta say that it looks 100 times better. :)

[Arthur Morris]

ps: I could not eliminate the blue cast in the whites... And I may have lightened it a bit too much. Also, Binu, there were clipped whites in the original post; you need to recover them when you convert. See the various tutorials on saving the whites in the Educational Resources Forum.

[Binu John]

I like the eye contact and nice BG. The bird is placed a bit low in the frame in my opinion :)

Thanks Juana! I'll repost the image after cropping it to move the bird higher in the frame.

[Binu John]

Nice detail and setting Binu. This looks very oversharpened or like a large crop for my monitor. I'd consider burning some of the highlights on the bird, and the fish.

Thanks Dave! Yes, I should admit that I've messed it up by oversharpening the image; but it's not a large crop. I'm going to repost the image after reprocessing it.

[Binu John]

Binu, This perch is much better but is still too big for the bird. I would agree that this looks like a huge crop. Please post the full frame here in a new pane.

Nice pose and head angle.

I would suggest getting a copy of Alan Murphy's Guide to Songbird Set-up Photography so that you can learn lots more about perch selection: https://store.birdsasart.com/shop/ca....aspx?catid=33

There was also a big color cast that I removed with Robert O'Toole's AverageBlur Color Balance trick. You can learn about that either in Digital Basics or in APTATS II. Then I lightened it as per Axel's suggestion. I gotta say that it looks 100 times better.


ps: I could not eliminate the blue cast in the whites... And I may have lightened it a bit too much. Also, Binu, there were clipped whites in the original post; you need to recover them when you convert. See the various tutorials on saving the whites in the Educational Resources Forum.

Arthur,

Thanks for the comments. I've been planning to buy that book and will order it before Christmas. I've tried to post the full size image, but it doesn't allow me to upload files bigger than 200 kb. This is not a huge crop (may be 60 - 70% of the original size); seems like I've oversharpened it.

Thanks for reprocessing the image. Your repost looks much better than my initial post. But the bird originally looked gray in color. I'm not good in post processing. I should buy your "digital basics" file.

I used the ALT key while recovering the highlights and couldn't find any more clipped hightlights. I thought, that step is enough for recovering clipped highlights. Now I know it's not enough and will refer the tutorials for more tips and tricks.

I've tried to reprocess the image and here is the result;

[Arthur Morris]

Hi Again Binu,

re:

Arthur,

Thanks for the comments.

YAW

I've been planning to buy that book and will order it before Christmas.

Digital Basics would be your best bet to start. It is a PDF that is sent via e-mail. I just updated and reorganized it.

I've tried to post the full size image, but it doesn't allow me to upload files bigger than 200 kb.

Ah, what I would like to see is a JPEG that represents the original z(un-cropped) capture. Just convert the RAW image and then make it an up-loadable JPEG as you would do normally but without any sharpening.

This is not a huge crop (may be 60 - 70% of the original size).

I would love to see it. You blind must have been quite close.

Thanks for reprocessing the image. Your repost looks much better than my initial post. But the bird originally looked gray in color. I'm not good in post processing. I should buy your "digital basics" file.

Good plan. The repost was much better in terms of color but it still needed to be color balanced as I saw it. Thus a second repost.

I used the ALT key while recovering the highlights and couldn't find any more clipped hightlights.

There are still lots of clipped highlights in the reposted JPEG.

I thought, that step is enough for recovering clipped highlights. Now I know it's not enough and will refer the tutorials for more tips and tricks.

There are lots of great tips in here: http://www.birdphotographers.net/for...ad.php?t=39984

Are you using ACR to convert your RAW files?

I've tried to reprocess the image and here is the result.

As I said, the color is better but there are still clipped highlights....

If you are not seeing any clipping when you convert in ACR then you are introducing the over-exposure somewhere after than in your workflow....

[Binu John]

Here is the original image without USM applied.

[Binu John]

Here is a 100% crop without USM applied.

[Arthur Morris]

Here is the original image without USM applied.

Thanks Binu, That is what I was looking for. Now go back and reconvert while saving the highlights and posting the finished JPEG with no flashing highlights. I cannot pass you until you do that :) And you were right, it was not a huge crop. A decent crop, but not huge. You must have had your blind very close to a tame bird.

[Raymond Barlow]

a quick edit to a beautiful shot., well done.

[Binu John]

Thanks Binu, That is what I was looking for. Now go back and reconvert while saving the highlights and posting the finished JPEG with no flashing highlights. I cannot pass you until you do that :) And you were right, it was not a huge crop. A decent crop, but not huge. You must have had your blind very close to a tame bird.

Hi Arthur,

Thank you very much! I've gone through the steps in your ACR Conversion workflow tutorial and reprocessed the image. I'm sure that still it's not perfect, but I think it's much better than my previous posts. I'm getting a lot of help here and I'm very proud to be a member of such a wonderful group.

[Binu John]

a quick edit to a beautiful shot., well done.

Thanks Raymond!

[Axel Hildebrandt]

The colors and whites in the repost look much better. I might increase saturation a few points and maybe a slight contrast boost. I also ran NR on the BG.

[Arthur Morris]

Hi Arthur,

Thank you very much! I've gone through the steps in your ACR Conversion workflow tutorial and reprocessed the image. I'm sure that still it's not perfect, but I think it's much better than my previous posts. I'm getting a lot of help here and I'm very proud to be a member of such a wonderful group.

Congrats! You did it. No flashing highlights. There is some great stuff in the ER but most folks simply do not take advantage of it.

I created this repost from your last repost. Still using the Average Blur Color Balance trick....

Good job by Axel with the NR above.

[Raymond Barlow]

much better guys., i think Binu is on the right track., well done.

[Binu John]

The colors and whites in the repost look much better. I might increase saturation a few points and maybe a slight contrast boost. I also ran NR on the BG.

Axel, I like the changes you made... Looks better.

I'm not sure how you manage the colors for web display. When I adjust the colors for web display (sRGB), it looks ugly in PS and the if I color correct in PS, it looks dull on web.

Here is another frame from the same sequence.

[Binu John]

Congrats! You did it. No flashing highlights. There is some great stuff in the ER but most folks simply do not take advantage of it.

I created this repost from your last repost. Still using the Average Blur Color Balance trick....

Good job by Axel with the NR above.

Thanks Arthur! Your repost looks more bluish on my laptop screen... May be due to the poor quality of my laptop monitor.

[Arthur Morris]

Thanks Arthur! Your repost looks more bluish on my laptop screen... May be due to the poor quality of my laptop monitor.

YAW. I am familiar with the bird and my laptop was calibrated not long ago. The colors in my last post look pretty good. A calibrated monitor is a must :)

I am gonna hit the sack now. I have done too many posts today!

[Binu John]

YAW. I am familiar with the bird and my laptop was calibrated not long ago. The colors in my last post look pretty good. A calibrated monitor is a must :)

I am gonna hit the sack now. I have done too many posts today!

I haven't calibrated my monitor recently. I'll calibrate it today.

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Axel, I like the changes you made... Looks better.

I'm not sure how you manage the colors for web display. When I adjust the colors for web display (sRGB), it looks ugly in PS and the if I color correct in PS, it looks dull on web.

Here is another frame from the same sequence.

Binu, if your monitor is calibrated properly, you should not see a big difference between PS and browser, especially if you use a color-managed browser such as Firefox 3.5 or Safari 4. In PS you can proof the colors, go to view > proof colors. I think most people choose Windows RGB but you can play around and see what looks closest to its appearance in the browser.