Another Tern - This time a black one

[Mikko Viljamaa]

As you guys were so kind and educated me with my previous tern, here is another one.

Other than your normal comments, I would like to know; how distracting are the green areas in the background, what about the partly shaded areas in bird's belly and finally the composition of the bird - should I move it to some direction?


Thanks and Cheers,

Mikko


Picture Info;
Canon EOSMK3 + 500/4 + 1.4 TC
AE 5.6
1/4000, Partial Metering, +2/3
ISO 400
Camera on Tripod

[Lance Peters]

Hi Mikko - tough bird in anything but soft light - the whites on the leading edge of the wing look like there are pretty close to being over, Two ends of the scale Black and White and not enough dynamic range to get detail in both - not a lot you can do here except for softer light. Shadows might be able to be softened a little with some careful use of shadow/highlight in P.S.
Not overly rapt in the green in the BG - though without it it does makes it a little sterile.

Like the catchlight in the eye and you have captured him at the right time - flying towards you!

You have a Halo present around the underside of the bird - usually from over sharpening or shadow/highlight.
Keep em coming :)

[Desmond Chan]

how distracting are the green areas in the background,

Not a whole lot as far as I am concerned. That's part of the environment, is it? Every time I open my eyes, I don't just see one thing and one thing only in an empty space in front of me and so, I think that's ok ;)

what about the partly shaded areas in bird's belly

I think overall the bird looks kind of dark. But I think it wasn't under the sunlight and so perhaps it's Ok after all.

should I move it to some direction?

Might be a tad up? Not bad as is.

Thanks

You are welcome !

[Michael Gerald-Yamasaki]

Mikko,

Greetings. You nailed focus, good detail on dark subject particularly the head (given the dynamic range challenges Lance points out). The shaded part is devoid of detail. The bg would be better to my eye if there wasn't a conjunction with the subject. I think you have enough detail in the head to bring it up a bit...

Cheers,

-Michael-

[Arthur Morris]

The "green" looks like black to me.... I rather like it and the tonalities are pretty good, maybe just a bit lighter on the darks. A crop from the bottom would be nice.

[Mikko Viljamaa]

Thanks guys, you bring up points which I miss totally. And I did sharpen this a bit more than usually. Do you get the same halo effect as easily if you use Photoshop for sharpening? Also what's your two cents; would Photoshop make this picture look "better" (rather than just using DDP), meaning would it be worth the effort?


Cheers,

Mikko

[Arthur Morris]

DPP can only be used to convert your RAW files. You can do tons more stuff in Photoshop as detailed in Digital Basics.

[Mikko Viljamaa]

About halo in small thumbs; when I look at the thumb pictures in this forum, I can see some halo effect in most of them (when I look carefully). How much of a "no-no" is this to people? Is there a way to get rid of it and does it matter which program you use to sharpen?

Mikko

[Arthur Morris]

If you can see the halo with the screen at the proper angle and the calibration strip at the bottom of the page looking good, that is a problem. If you only see the halo when the monitor is tilted then I have no problem with those.