Well, off came my filter - yes I know on the Canon 100-400 and spent the day freezing to death, trying to get "the shot"
Light very bright today off and on, **** these are hard :oC&C welcome
Exif
Canon 40d
F 8.0
1/500
ISO 800
Curves, USM, NR edge action PS5
Last edited by Richard Unsworth; 01-08-2011 at 05:39 PM.
Richard, the first thing I noticed was that your whites are overexposed and your blacks are blocked. If you check your histogram you'll see a small spike on the right side where the whites on his cheek and neck are blown (so white there's no details at all) and then a larger spike on the left end where the blacks of his tail are blocked (no detail there either.) I'd open the image in RAW and see if you can unblock the blacks and recover the whites - that's the most important change you could make at this point.
I also placed a ROT's grid on the image and the eye is in a good position but, if you ask me, the bird is centered on the horizontal plane - I'd crop about half off the bottom and then recompose the image so the head/eye is near the ROT's position and see what you think. Just remember to leave enough below the bird for the viewer to "see" the imaginary feet in the water.
recovered in CR5, whites slightly blown, and blacks now unblocked
recropped as suggested; looks loads better.:)
btw looks lighter on my monitor, seems to darken a little of saving for web and posting as has been mentioned before - dont know why. Open .CR2 file in PS5 shows blacks AND whites unblocked. Jpeg loaded back shows whites slightly pegged. Presumably its something expected when downsizing?
what say you?
Last edited by Richard Unsworth; 01-09-2011 at 03:14 PM.
Hi Richard, I've been enjoying your Goldeneyes... I like this one alot bc of the head angle. However when you reposted (crop) the sharpness was compromised. Really like the water droplets against the beautiful green. TFS Ann
Thanks for that, they are proving to be a very difficult subject lol
However hopefully the mistakes I am making, and the excellent critique coming in will assist other members
and that surely is one of the main functions of the forum. I always take critism positively though sometimes its disappointing when you think you have got a good pic lol.
I will keep trying, every day if I can to get that perfect shot:)
I have redone the pic in raw and added more sharp for you! notice the subtle colours of this bird
Last edited by Richard Unsworth; 01-09-2011 at 04:02 PM.
The last one is definitely the best, although you might consider masking off the water so it doesn't get as sharp as the bird! It is a much improved image and you've done some nice work here.
One last Goldeneye
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