Breton Island Brown Pelican

[Steve Uffman]

Taken at Breton Island off the coast of Louisiana during the BP Oil Spill 5/4/2010 8:48am cst

Canon 7d 100-400mm f/4 IS USM handheld at 169mm manual mode f/7.1 ISO 1250

hand of man elements included using LR3 to set white balance from cloudy to daylight as the sun popped out momentarily, usual cropping for composition, dust spot removal, eliminated some distracting distant gulls from the image, worked on the white crown on the head to reduce clipping, and tweak the sky a bit to bring the clouds out and moved a few sliders and just had fun. Final step was a bit of sharpening. Not sure if any of what I did was done well but I did follow a workflow suggested by an ole wise man. no doubt I learned something today but still a rookie and pledge to work hard to get better. anyway, I am laying it out there....all advice sincerely appreciated!!!

grasshopper

[Gary Hamilton]

Nice job considering the difficult light angle. Good job of post-processing except as noted above. I agree on a bit more sharpening. There is a distracting little twig or something hanging off the tail, you might want to remove that when you clean up the artifact under the foot. Cheers.

[WIlliam Maroldo]

Hi Steve. Nice image, the twigs add interest, and a decent composition, though it does need some space on the right. We can post images up to 1024 pixels in width, though there is a 200Kb limit, and this small image lacks detail that a larger image might show.
The big problem to me is the shadows, and the sun popping out is the culprit.
Although it is possible to take excellent images of the brown pelican in flight in high contrast light, see Pat Lillich's image in ETL here, generally in high contrast light (direct sunlight unfiltered by clouds, etc.)the appearance of dark shadows, caused by the pelican's body and its own very long wings casting shadows on the body, reguire almost precise postioning of the subject in relation to the light source to avoid these shadows, which is very difficult with a bird in flight.
Therefore there is a considerable advantage in using the low contrast light of overcast or cloudy skies with brown pelicans. Soft light, as low contrast light is usually referred to, prevents not only the appearance of clipped highlights and blocked dark parts of an image with proper exposure, but shadows are likely far more diffuse or absent altogether. Since the dynamic range has been reduced so that the camera sensor can capture the full range, post-processing is much easier as well. regards~Bill

[Steve Uffman]

Thanks for the feedback. Very much appreciated....Interesting that an entire morning at the rookery only netted two photos with the sun peeking through.....I usually shoot with white balance at cloudy to add some warmth. The shadows are noticeably different....One trade off that my inexperienced eye notice is that the sky was pretty bland compared to the daylight WB setting.....

I actually opted to change it after reviewing so many critiques on images about lack of interest in the sky....

Hi Steve. Nice image, the twigs add interest, and a decent composition, though it does need some space on the right. We can post images up to 1024 pixels in width, though there is a 200Kb limit, and this small image lacks detail that a larger image might show.
The big problem to me is the shadows, and the sun popping out is the culprit.
Although it is possible to take excellent images of the brown pelican in flight in high contrast light, see Pat Lillich's image in ETL here, generally in high contrast light (direct sunlight unfiltered by clouds, etc.)the appearance of dark shadows, caused by the pelican's body and its own very long wings casting shadows on the body, reguire almost precise postioning of the subject in relation to the light source to avoid these shadows, which is very difficult with a bird in flight.
Therefore there is a considerable advantage in using the low contrast light of overcast or cloudy skies with brown pelicans. Soft light, as low contrast light is usually referred to, prevents not only the appearance of clipped highlights and blocked dark parts of an image with proper exposure, but shadows are likely far more diffuse or absent altogether. Since the dynamic range has been reduced so that the camera sensor can capture the full range, post-processing is much easier as well. regards~Bill

[Steve Uffman]

I will remove the trailing twig...almost did that before posting but decided to see if it was as distracting to others as it was to me. Researching how to fix the let over pixels below the foot...suggestions where to start? and any advice on sharpening is welcomed. I have been looking for guidance and have had trouble determining what guidelines are reasonable.

Nice job considering the difficult light angle. Good job of post-processing except as noted above. I agree on a bit more sharpening. There is a distracting little twig or something hanging off the tail, you might want to remove that when you clean up the artifact under the foot. Cheers.

[Steve Uffman]

Also thanks for the tip on image size. I did nothing more than have LR3 export the file with a 200KB limit. I was a bit disappointed how it exported. I will follow up on how to post a more robust copy of the image.... I was curious how some folks images are more robust given the 200KB limit. This is the only place where the image had that constraint.

Hi Steve. Nice image, the twigs add interest, and a decent composition, though it does need some space on the right. We can post images up to 1024 pixels in width, though there is a 200Kb limit, and this small image lacks detail that a larger image might show.
The big problem to me is the shadows, and the sun popping out is the culprit.
Although it is possible to take excellent images of the brown pelican in flight in high contrast light, see Pat Lillich's image in ETL here, generally in high contrast light (direct sunlight unfiltered by clouds, etc.)the appearance of dark shadows, caused by the pelican's body and its own very long wings casting shadows on the body, reguire almost precise postioning of the subject in relation to the light source to avoid these shadows, which is very difficult with a bird in flight.
Therefore there is a considerable advantage in using the low contrast light of overcast or cloudy skies with brown pelicans. Soft light, as low contrast light is usually referred to, prevents not only the appearance of clipped highlights and blocked dark parts of an image with proper exposure, but shadows are likely far more diffuse or absent altogether. Since the dynamic range has been reduced so that the camera sensor can capture the full range, post-processing is much easier as well. regards~Bill

[Steve Uffman]

I posted a picture moments ago in the wildlife section following the 1024x800 pixel guidelines...much better I hope...thanks for the catch

Hi Steve. Nice image, the twigs add interest, and a decent composition, though it does need some space on the right. We can post images up to 1024 pixels in width, though there is a 200Kb limit, and this small image lacks detail that a larger image might show.
The big problem to me is the shadows, and the sun popping out is the culprit.
Although it is possible to take excellent images of the brown pelican in flight in high contrast light, see Pat Lillich's image in ETL here, generally in high contrast light (direct sunlight unfiltered by clouds, etc.)the appearance of dark shadows, caused by the pelican's body and its own very long wings casting shadows on the body, reguire almost precise postioning of the subject in relation to the light source to avoid these shadows, which is very difficult with a bird in flight.
Therefore there is a considerable advantage in using the low contrast light of overcast or cloudy skies with brown pelicans. Soft light, as low contrast light is usually referred to, prevents not only the appearance of clipped highlights and blocked dark parts of an image with proper exposure, but shadows are likely far more diffuse or absent altogether. Since the dynamic range has been reduced so that the camera sensor can capture the full range, post-processing is much easier as well. regards~Bill