Sorting through old images and found this one.
Nikon D100 70-300mm at 220mm iso 400 1/100 f/7.1, aperture priority, matrix metering, wb cloudy.
Processed CS4 shadow-highlight, curves, hue-saturation, selective sharpened, 30% cropped. comments welcomed
Hi Craig - COOL looking bird - looking quite dark in the mid tones on my screen - not a lot of details visible in the blacks - opening up the mid tones might help a little. Guessing the original must have been a bit under as this has already had S/H applied.
The branch/pod on the RHS is a tad distracting would probably evict it.
Keep em coming :)
I see same on my monitor as Lance. Probably also why can't see the eye.
Cat tail on right doesn't bother me much because bird is on same and it's part of environment. Could go either way for me.
Beautiful bird, and you've caught him in a nice pose. Agree with above comments - tough to get exposure right on blacks without blowing yellows, but it could use some detail. Might try brightening the eye a bit. Cattail could stay or go but to me it helps balance the comp. Wish we had these birds in our area.
Greetings. I took a look at your photo in PS and found the head clipped in red (high) and blue (low). So most of the detail in the yellows are in the green channel. In the following I created a monochrome image using just the green channel and with a duplicate layer over the monochrome one and blending for hue (to bring the color back).
A small hot area on the left side yellow near the shoulder was left as the original. Lifted the blacks with curves and a bit more for the eye.
If you see a difference between the original (left) and the originally posted version, it is because this version has the color profile attached (while original does not) and the difference can be seen in color managed browsers (Safari & Firefox)...
Michael - thanks for much good info
I do see difference between OP original and your repost original, mainly in the yellow. My browser is Firefox 3.6 and I think it shows the image as is, not automatically converting to sRGB. This color management thing is getting worse instead of better. I wish BPN would simply convert all images to sRGB.
Your rework I like lot more because I can see the eye. Still would like to see more into the black. But may not be there.
Tom
ps - I started a thread in the General forum re this color profile thing. It is critical to how we make comments on images.
Last edited by Tom Graham; 04-17-2010 at 02:22 PM.
Reason: added ps
Greetings. The issue with color management is whether the color profile is attached or not (and whether the browser used color manages or not). You see a difference in Firefox because the OP image does not have the sRGB color profile attached and you're looking at both with Firefox. If you were using Internet Explorer the OP image and my reposted original would look the same (even the edited one would have more orangish yellows). (tom, just summarizing, I think you understand this)
IMO, it would be great if everyone attached the color profile, but everyone is not in agreement on this.
Regarding the blacks, this is editing on a jpeg and noise vs. detail is challenging. Would be better in working the RAW and/or full res tiff. Similar channel tricks could be employed as above with largely eliminating the blue channel (where a large part of the noise is) and adjusting just the resulting luminance (b&w version) with curves before reintroducing the hue (masking as necessary).
Cheers,
-Michael-
Last edited by Michael Gerald-Yamasaki; 04-17-2010 at 02:30 PM.
Reason: note added
Thanks Michael - I have not tried using channels as you are expert in. I'll have to try it. Guess we need to ask commentators here which browser they are using!?!? I'd best drop this here, now, before I get scolded (again) for going off- topic.
Michael, thanks for the info and the re post of yours is a definite improvement. This was one of my first digital images, took image as jpeg-- didn't know much about raw. my ps skills are still very limited. Thanks again Craig.
Michael's re-post is right on. Overall I like the composition, there is enough of a hint of the habitat to make it interesting. Good sharpness on the bird and the cattail.
Cheers
Gail
ps - Thanks Michael for the explanation of the PS work
Yellow-headed Blackbird
