Nikon D700, 300mm f2.8, 1.4 tc, iso 400, f8, 1/160 Aperture priority.
Adjusted exposure, white balance, contrast, clarity in acr. Reduced brightness on perch,
one round of usm in cs3. This is about a 50% crop. Giottos tripod.
Female Cardinal
Nikon D700, 300mm f2.8, 1.4 tc, iso 400, f8, 1/160 Aperture priority.
Adjusted exposure, white balance, contrast, clarity in acr. Reduced brightness on perch,
one round of usm in cs3. This is about a 50% crop. Giottos tripod.
Jack, nice pose and perch on this one. You've also done a really nice job in the comp/crop. What is bothering me the most with this one is the BG - especially the dark limbs running down the right side. It also feels a little bit heavy in the dark tones overall - my guess is it's just a bit underexposed.
I opened the image and selected the bird/perch, then inversed the selection. I used a high amount of gaussian blur on the BG and then used a soft brush set to one of the BG colors to paint over the darker areas so they'd blend into the BG a little better. I opened a levels adjustment and brought in the lightest tones and mid tones a bit more to soften the dark tones of the bird. I darkened the edges of the frame to pull the eye towards the bird and did a curves adjustment on the birds eye to bring out a little more detail.
Now...this was fast and furious so don't mind the sloppy job on the blur but I wanted to give you an idea of where else you might take the image. The amount of blur on the BG is purely my preference - I'm sure many will be fine with what you have here - but wanted to show that it is possible to blend it out in pp so the bird can take more of the center stage. These are just some ideas for you to consider...nothing more.
I agree with Jules that those darker areas draw attention away from the nicely composed and exposed bird. The blurred background as reposted would work nicely, but it would need some good work masking out the bird.
Nice image Jack. Is it a set-up? Great pose and head angle. Beautiful soft, even light. I agree about the BG but it wouldn't take much to protect the bird with a mask and even out the blotches. Jules' blurring approach is another option. I would try some other crops giving the bird a bit more space.
Hello John, this is one of the remaining roots sticking up from a blown down oak that Katrina toppled.
I put seed on the ground around the roots, this was later in the afternoon and this area is in shade.
Thanks for responding
Jack
What a nice portrait of the Cardinal. I am unsure about the BG, perhaps if it shot wider open, the background calm down a little more. Was there a reason to shoot at f/8?
Chris, I had a flash set up on another part of this stump and when this girl landed here I slowly swung the
rig around and switched to aperture priority and shot. The bg here was very close to the bird. I never even
thought about changing the f stop. I,m still learning.
Jack
Okay, thanks for the additional information. :)
Posting Permissions
