Sora

[susanschermer]

Green Cay this AM. 1DMarkIII, 400 f/4DO lens. I was sorry I couldn't get lower but the old boardwalk story. 1/3 crop.

[Kim Rollins]

Susan,

This is a bird I would love to see and image. Are they not kind of secretive much like the Virginia Rails we have?
Nice capture.


I think it has a bit of yellow cast to the darks and correction for that is of course up to you. Here is a repost with some adjustments in that direction and a bit of sharpening added (mostly to the light pixels)

[Peter Farrell]

Excellent capture. I think the contrast could be picked up a bit, but not quite as far as the re-post
Peter

[Daniel Cadieux]

I like the habitat here, and especially the leaf at right. I thought the original was a bit too yellow too. Contrast is a bit strong on the repost, but the colours are better. I don't mind the angle you had here.

[Arthur Morris]

Great pose, COMP, repost, and head angle. Congrats on finding one of these out in the open.

[Raymond Barlow]

Hi Susan... one of the best Sora images I have seen, the environment and light is outstanding., just a couple small tweaks to my edit... slight contrast adjustment with the levels , slight sharpening, manual blur of the noise in the smooth background (quickly), cloned out the white spot behind the birds eye, I think it is one of those things we see on the plant that is right of the bird, forgive me if I am wrong.

congrats... and also, noting that this is 1/3 of the frame?? << maybe more room would be nice if you have it.

take care.

[Aidan Briggs]

I would go somewhere in between Ray's post and Kim's. Nice hunting pose, habitat, and light. I have never seen one of these out in the open.

[Matt Lerer]

Hey Susan,

Great shot and I don't mind the angle at all. The re-posts are good and agreed somewhere between the two works for me. Was the Sora still hanging on the North side this morning?

[John Blumenkamp]

Hi Susan... another nod from me on the angle - I think it works really well. The re-posts work, with Raymond's looking pretty good to my eye.

[paul leverington]

Hi Susan--Hey this has got a lovely composition and feel to it. Not a common bird to get in front of the lens either! So far I like Raymonds repost the best and agree with Daniels comments. But all in all it's a wonderful shot especially with the environment included.

Paul

[susanschermer]

I looked at all of your comments :). I checked an old photo of a sora and found that the white spot on his eye is indeed a part of the bird and belongs on him.
I started from scratch, gave it a little more room left and bottom, desatted on the yellows, added some blue and red and upped the contrast (Kim's was a little heavy) . I think I am happy with it now.

[paul leverington]

Susan--your repost is looking the best and thanks for clarifying the white spot behind the eye as part of his markings. Did you set a white point on this shot? The reason I ask is because I'm starting to believe that the whites of his breast area and belly seem to have a blue cast. If only for grins and giggles maybe grab the eyedropper and set the values to something like 250 across the board and click on your hottest white. But maybe the off white is the way he's supposed to look. That I don't know.

Paul

[paul leverington]

After looking at the shot with more scrutiny I think you could do it one better Susan if you were to re-develop it and work with the white balance. It's a shaded looking white balance as is--which I'm pretty sure was the condition of the light at the time of the shot, but the shot would look better with less blue tint and more sunny warm color IMO. Is it possible you had the wrong wb setting at the time you took the shot? Also after checking the light tones in levels, I discovered you have a lot of blown pixels, in your repost at least. But I worked with it anyways and set the white point to 240 on one of the breast areas tha were white, and masked and brushed as desired. I also did some finese curves layers brushed in gently to get bg to fg separation. Got rid of the bright ULC distraction and sharpened the feet+added contrast to them as I feel they really help make the shot. A little sat boost on the eye and feet(10%) to get them to pop a bit.

The main thing I'm thinking is to start with a white balanced and not out of gamut original, and work the bg against the fg to get some distance between them, so as to make the bird stand out a bit more. Brightening and cleaning up the whites I think helps. Do you have the complete leaf on the right in another frame that you could graft on? Being chopped has an unsettling look to it.

Although I did some finese things on about 8 layers, I did not take a lot of time to make them perfect. Just wanted to convey some thoughts and ideas to you, and cause I do love your picture very much.

Paul

[Arthur Morris]

Well done Paul and thanks. Though your is similar to Susan's I like it a lot better, especially the face. And yes, that leaf on the right really needs to be complete.

[Kim Rollins]

Much better Susan. You did well.

You are right mine was a bit heavy on contrast and I realized that right after I posted it. :o