NIK Treatment on an immature Cormorant

[Gerald Kelberg]

Sidelight on this young cormorant was a problem (no possibility to change position), leaving the underwing quite heavily in shadow. I selected this pose for the spread wings and the best light on the head, catching the eye, and used the Silver Reflector from recently acquired NIK Color Effects Pro. This brought more light under the bird's right wing but left something of a blue cast which was easy enough to deal with. A little bit of woodwork on the branch, and tweaking of the background and voila!

Unlikely to win any prizes, but I was quite pleased with the result and the difference the Reflector made. There are a number of adjustments that can be made within the filter and I would be interested to hear any "tips and tricks" or thoughts others may have on how I can do it better.

Canon 1D Mk III, EF500 F4 x 1.4, Manual 1/1000 sec at f10, ISO 800, Evaluative metering +2.3

[dankearl]

It is a nice pose and perch but the dark areas are pretty dark.
My only tip is better light, but I understand, you take what you can get.

[Jay Sheinfield]

Great pose........sidelighting makes some dark shadows. My best suggestion is to get the sun behind you so that it lights up the bird. I realize that may not have been a choice here.

[Kerry Perkins]

Hi Gerald, this is a classic great pose for the cormy but I'm afraid the mixed lighting just makes the image not work for me. A good flash with a Better Beamer could have made up some of the difference, but even flash can't outshine the sun. Trying to lighten this much of a dark area in PS just leads to a lot of loss of IQ from noise. The real killer here is that the head and eye are very dark. As Jay said, best to get the light in the right place and wait for the shot!

[Desmond Chan]

Hey, Gerald, I think you pretty much understood the problems you were facing and, likely, you knew how to avoid or solve them when you had a chance. So, I don't think I need to tell you to do this or that in the future It seems to me you wanted to know if the image still works after the post-processing you did. To me, I think you did pretty good. Your final image works, mostly I do like to see some of the darker areas a bit brighter (but it could just be my monitor). I did some quick adjustments using Topaz Adjust. It could be brighter if needed. I don't know about what's wrong with mixed lighting and I have yet to see an explanation from anyone on why that kind of lighting does not work. So I guess it's one of those things that is very personal and based on feeling and nothing more. And since I don't have that feeling, it works for me.

[Kerry Perkins]

Desmond, I'll give you an explanation right now. Your camera doesn't have the dynamic range to properly expose for both extremes of light intensity, which is what you get when shooting a bird like this in mixed light. As a result, you have to choose between blowing the whites or crushing the blacks. Either way just plain looks bad, and that is why this kind of lighting generally doesn't work. If you do it for dramatic effect, it must be controlled in the capture by not having large areas either very dark or very bright. While your repost adds some light to the dark areas, it does not solve the fundamental issue of the harsh mixed light.

[Desmond Chan]

Desmond, I'll give you an explanation right now. Your camera doesn't have the dynamic range to properly expose for both extremes of light intensity, which is what you get when shooting a bird like this in mixed light.

Kerry, what you're talking about seems to me is high contrast situation. I agree with the issues you mentioned. However, I could be wrong but I think, in general, mixed lighting does not necessarily mean high contrast. I don't see how the two words "mixed lighting" suggest "high contrast". I can imagine mixing candle light with tungsten light and still result in low-contrast situation. And, if we could agree that different lighting situations could invoke different responses and emotions from the viewers, it stands to reason that mixed lighting does have a role to play when it's a certain kind of response that the photographer is after from the viewers. Therefore, it does not seem to make much sense to say: "Mixed lighting does not work. Period."

Thank you for your explanation, Kerry.

[Gerald Kelberg]

Hi Guys and thanks for the feedback. I know side-lit images are not to everyone's liking. But some people use it to striking effect and win awards. And sometimes for me there is no choice, so I am really keen to try dealing with the results in PP and get a decent outcome - as Desmond mentioned.

I see where Kerry is coming from on the mixed light / high contrast / dynamic range discussion, but personally wouldn't characterize the shot like that. Just badly lit.

Here is a further attempt - this time with some added conventional Shadows/Highlights adjustment on the bird overall and a touch of Tonal Contrast under the darker wing. Still seems to be holding together quite well - no really noticeable noise.

Any further thoughts or am I flogging a dead horse?

[Kerry Perkins]

I agree with you both somewhat, and said that off-axis lighting can be used for dramatic effect but that I don't think it works in this image. However, I'm sure you both know that the term "mixed lighting" generally refers to direct sun versus shadow in this context. Of course different types of light are mixed in some types of photography, like indoor architectural. I do some of that myself, but that's not what we're talking about here.

Desmond, please don't put words in my mouth. I did not say "Mixed lighting does not work. Period." You said that. What I said was "this kind of lighting generally doesn't work", and then stated that it can be used for dramatic effect. No matter how much post processing you use, you can't escape the fact that the entire head (except for one little patch) is completely dark. If that's ok with you that's fine, but I can't say that it works for me.

Gerald, I'm not trying to discourage you here. Quite the opposite, I encourage you to try for better lighting next time. Your last repost does add some light to the underwing areas, but the big problem is that the bright background robs the scene of any contrast nuance in the dark areas. Try just holding your hands over the top and bottom of the image on your screen, so that you see mostly cormy. You will see that the removal of most of the sky makes the bird look much nicer.