How to process this picture

[Shreeni Rao]

I am fairly new to bird photography and the required PP techniques though I am fairly handy with CS5. The current photos was of the GWE in rain taken in Jun 2011 in Karnataka, India. Canon EOS 7D/70-200/2.8 IS II USM + 2x TC-II from a kayak.

I tried the same techniques that I use for my portraits & event photos but came up cropper. Would you be able to guide me ?

EXIF intact though the image has been resized to forum requirements. No PP has been done.

TIA

Shreeni

[John Chardine]

Hi Shreeni- This is a beautiful portrait of a heron/egret against a really nice background. There are a few things you can do to improve the image. The main issue is that it is underexposed and dark. It's best to expose correctly out of the camera of course but if you have a dark image like this there are various techniques that you will be familiar with to brighten up the image. The middle slider in Levels works well on this image. You could also use Curves, Brightness and Contrast (a bit of a sledgehammer), or the dodging tool. The problem with brightening an underexposed image in PP is that you will bring out the noise. If you shoot RAW it's actually best to overexpose the image so long as the highlights are not blown ("exposing to the right"). Then bring the exposure back in PP. That will give you the best noise ratio.

The other thing I would do is recrop so that the bird is looking into the long side of the image with less negative space behind the bird's head. As it is now the bird looks a bit like it's been naughty and has been sent to the corner!

[Shreeni Rao]

Thank you very much John.

Using the same workflow I use for other photos [(Lab Mode - SmartSharpern Lightness @ 100%, Remove Noise 8/No detail on a&b), default highlight/shadow bacn on RGB mode and black & white adjustment layer] I achieved this. But I guess I need to get the exposure more to right in the first place ? :)

[Shreeni Rao]

John,

Thank you for taking time to comment. Using my regular workflow [LAB Mode - Remove noise on a&b @ 8 and then Smart Sharpen 100% on the lightness] I added an adjustment layer to pick black and white point and later ran a default pass of Highlight/Shadows adjustment.

But how do I brighten the background ? I guess the bird itself is acceptably sharp ?

[Phil Ertel]

Hi Shreeni,

Here is what I would do with this image if it were mine. (CS5)

1. First crop behind the bird just before the wing. this moves the bird out of the center.
2. Using a curve layer, I dragged the middle of the curve up a fair bit to lighten the bird. I added a mask to hide this adjustment and then painted over the bird with white to expose the lighten bird only.
3. I also added a dodge and burn layer and selectively lighten additional areas of the bird to even out the light. (Heed John's advice. It always better to get in right in the camera.)
4. Next I added a few points of black to black and neutrals in a selective color layer and also reduce the blacks in the white .
5. Resized, sharpened and saved for the wed.

This was done on my laptop fairly quickly. I am sure you could get better results with the original file and taking more time and care. I will leave it up to you if it helps.


Regards,


Phil

[Shreeni Rao]

Thanks Phil. This is look so much better :)

[Jeff Cashdollar]

Welcome Shrenni, as noted the image is underexposed. What mode do you shot and how was this metered. The exposure information would be nice too. Was this a large crop as well, over 50%.

You are in the right place to receive great feedback from many talented people regarding bird photography. Many people shot AV or Manual and Al Servo mode. Usually Evaluative metering and sometimes spot. Looking forward to more from you. It can be other subjects besides birds too.

[Shreeni Rao]

Jeff,

Thanks for the feedback. Actually it is almost uncropped.

[Kerry Perkins]

Shreeni, the image is definitely underexposed and dark. Please give us complete technical info - ISO, metering mode, shutter speed, aperture, white balance... Even if the exposure had been right for the whites, the face is still in shadow and should be lightened. The image seems a little soft to me, so I'm thinking it could be sharper overall. Phil's repost really brought out the best in this image and his and John's points are well taken. Overexposure is not any better than underexposure, and your reposts are all overexposed. Keep on posting here and looking at the images of others, you will get the hang of it!

P.S. - jump in and comment on other images, it helps us all and you will learn from the responses to your comments!