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Great Blue Heron Portrait
Hermitage Park, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. September 30, 2011. Evening lighting from the right-rear side.
Canon EOS 7D | EF 400mm f/5.6L | Manual mode, 1/800 sec., f/7.1, ISO 800, handheld.
Thanks for all C&C! Have a great weekend (long weekend to some)!
Raymond
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Avian Moderator
Ray:
The side lighting has given tremendous texture and detail to the feathers, love the lower portion of the neck in particular. Interesting head position.
The bright and busy background is a bit distracting, in particular the grass intersecting with his bill. I would consider trying to tone it down a bit.
Cheers
Randy
MY BPN ALBUMS
"Tact is the art of making a point without making an enemy" Sir Isaac Newton
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Randy, thanks for the suggestion! Tone it down as in lower the overall brightness of the background? I tried lower the brightness a bit , but the highlights appear to stand out even more even though they were toned down together with the non-highlights in the background.
Raymond
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Here's the revised version of the above shot:
For the background, I lowered the saturation slightly, re-adjusted the curve, and applied Gaussian blur.
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Publisher
As you have figured out by now, off angled light presents lots of problems especially with birds with some white plumage.... As Randy says, parts of the image like the neck are nice..... But. The biggest reed problem is the one that lines up with the bill. That is an easy fix....
BIRDS AS ART Blog: great info and lessons, lots of images with our legendary BAA educational Captions; we will not sell you junk. 30+ years of long lens experience/e-mail with gear questions.
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Avian Moderator
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Post a Thank You. - 1 Thanks
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Randy, Artie:
It is not a easy one with processing this shot with the off angle lighting and busy background. It is what it is though and it was the only scenario I can shoot at that time. I appreciate your suggestions
How about this one:
I toned down the background a bit more with a Curve layer. I also edited out that grass that intersects the bill with several series of layer masks and with combination of cloning and healing. It looks much better to me now. What do you guys think?
Thanks,
Raymond
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Avian Moderator
Ray:
Good job on the reed near the bill.
I think you have gotten as much as you can out of this image. It is a challenge because of the feather detail, making selections on the bird are a challenge!
A point to carry forward to next time. When you know you have a busy background, go for the shallowest DOF you can to isolate the subject as much as possible. In this case, shoot wide open.
Cheers
Randy
MY BPN ALBUMS
"Tact is the art of making a point without making an enemy" Sir Isaac Newton
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Post a Thank You. - 1 Thanks
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Publisher
Originally Posted by
raymklee
Randy, Artie: It is not an easy one with processing this shot with the off angle lighting and busy background. It is what it is though and it was the only scenario I can shoot at that time. I appreciate your suggestions
How about this one; I toned down the background a bit more with a Curve layer. I also edited out that grass that intersects the bill with several series of layer masks and with combination of cloning and healing. It looks much better to me now. What do you guys think? Thanks, Raymond
I am with Randy; the repost is about as good as you are gonna get. As far as this: "It is not an easy one with processing this shot with the off angle lighting and busy background" both Randy and I have been there often :). And that is why I teach folks to point there shadows at the birds whenever possible .
BIRDS AS ART Blog: great info and lessons, lots of images with our legendary BAA educational Captions; we will not sell you junk. 30+ years of long lens experience/e-mail with gear questions.
BIRDS AS ART Online Store: we will not sell you junk. 35 years of long lens experience. Please e-mail with gear questions.
Check out the new SONY e-Guide and videos that I did with Patrick Sparkman here. Ten percent discount for BPN members,
E-mail me at samandmayasgrandpa@att.net.
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Post a Thank You. - 1 Thanks
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Really appreciate both of your help!
Thanks,
Raymond
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Publisher
Hey Ray, YAW; that's what we are here for. And we learn a ton from you guys as well.
BIRDS AS ART Blog: great info and lessons, lots of images with our legendary BAA educational Captions; we will not sell you junk. 30+ years of long lens experience/e-mail with gear questions.
BIRDS AS ART Online Store: we will not sell you junk. 35 years of long lens experience. Please e-mail with gear questions.
Check out the new SONY e-Guide and videos that I did with Patrick Sparkman here. Ten percent discount for BPN members,
E-mail me at samandmayasgrandpa@att.net.