Canon 5d Mark II
Canon EF 300mm f/4L IS
ISO 400
1/1250 sec
f/5.6
Gitzo tripod, no flash
Taken in Fort Myers, FL last spring. Cropped a little, brightened and sharpened in CS4. I welcome all critiques and comments.
Brown Pelican Strikes a Pose
Canon 5d Mark II
Canon EF 300mm f/4L IS
ISO 400
1/1250 sec
f/5.6
Gitzo tripod, no flash
Taken in Fort Myers, FL last spring. Cropped a little, brightened and sharpened in CS4. I welcome all critiques and comments.
Hi Melissa,
I like the pose and the perch is nice. The image has a light green cast that might be affecting the bird to some degree, also I think you could make this better with a crop off the right, brightening the bird a little and maybe a little more sharpening. The exposure has a nice "high key" effect but I think you could have added even a little more light to avoid clipping the dark feathers on the back of the neck. I worked on it a little (hope you don't mind) but could not get any details to come out in the blacks. One trick is to go back to the raw and reconvert it with an effort to adjust the blacks.
Joel
Thanks Joel, I really like your improvements.
I love the image and more with your fine tuning, thanks to both. Loosing a bit of the lower right branch made a difference to me and the colors and sharpness helped it all pop after adjustments.
Melissa, there's a lot to love about this image but I think it still needs a few more tweaks. First, the green in the BG seems a bit off so I used the black eyedropper on the levels adjustment and touched it to the black at the bottom of his foot toget rid of any color cast on the bird; then I selected the entire BG and did a hue/saturation adjustment pushing the hue of the BG to the right quite a bit to get it to go to a more normal blue color. Now, if the water really was this green then by all means keep it the way it is. You were there; not I.
Also, the white area on the upper neck is blown. Like last time, I grabbed a color very close to the white (I chose the light gray at the base of the white area) and used the soft brush to clone over the white at 20%. That said, if your histogram is blinking when you take the image, it's better to correct this in field than with pp.
Lastly, I looked at the image and the thing that stood out to me the most was that beautiful neck and eye area. I recropped to a 10x7 and put the eye in the ROT's position and got rid of all that excess negative space. What I've learned over time is if the image is more vertical than horizontal then try a vertical crop first (and vice versa). In this case, I think the vertical is much stronger and really gives the bird a huge sense of presence plus you get all the detail of those wet feathers by closing in on the bird more.
Just some ideas to kick around...your original image is in great shape - just need to be diligent about those blinkies when you're in the field!
Hi Melissa - great advice above and Jules repost is to my personal tastes.
One thing to keep in mind in these circumstances - there is nothing in the BG to be concerned about - Using a low ISO and plenty of SS - In these circumstances bump the ISO up and stop down for some added DOF - Nothing in the BG that is going to be affected and the extra DOF will help enhance the subject.
Keep em coming :)
Thanks Lance--will keep that in mind for sure.
Great advice, Julie. Thank you so much. You are a PS whiz and I am saving all your comments and going through the steps myself--what a fantastic learning opportunity!
Melissa, this is such a beautiful shot that I keep coming back to look at it over and over. great advice from the very knowledgeable folk here -
Thank you Pat!
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