Swamp Boubou #2

[gail bisson]

Canon 7D
f 500mm
6:48 AM
ISO 640
SS 1/1250
F 6.3
Full frame
PP in LR3 and reduced brightness and patched out bright branch to left of left hand bird in CS5
I didn't do any sharpening except in LR3 as everything I tried in CS5 on the 1094 x 800 size seemed to make the blacks wonky. Any suggestions?
Comments and critiques always appreciated and learned from with thanks,
Gail

[Alfredo Fernández]

Exposure looks really good, i also like the composition. you did perfect on having both subjects in focus, which is hard.
About the CS5 photoshop issue, i feel sorry i can not help you as im new into that.
Keep them comming!

[v.p.nurdeen]

lovely composition Gail. you got both the birds facing each other with good H/A and catch light.

[gail bisson]

I just figured out what I was doing wrong re:sharpening. Here is repost

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Gail, good double, facing each other, and I like the central placement. I also like the curved perch of the reed, and cool BG too. I felt your blacks had a blue cast to them, so did a quick check and you will find that indeed there is a blue cast. Easily fixed. Cheers.

[Steven Kersting]

At this size I don't see a major difference between the sharpened/unsharpened versions other than a bit more noise in the BG. The blue coloration doesn't bother me as that is pretty typical of black birds...no idea if it's "correct" for this bird. But I think it might be a little "neater" without the blue. All in all I think it's a lovely shot.

[gail bisson]

Here is my repost. Stu was kind enough to PM me to tell me how to reduce the blues in blacks. I learned to use the dropper to tell me if the R and G and B ( on info bar at top right of CS 5 screen) are all roughly the same number ( for true black)- my blue # was higher for sure, and then to go to adjustment layer, select hue/saturation then select blues and decrease saturation by appropriate amount to get rid of blue. If I hover my dropper over my change in the black the numbers for R and G and B are almost the same now.
Thanks Stu! I learned something today!

[Cheryl Arena Molennor]

I love it Gail. The placement of the 2 very sharp birds and the really neat perch make this a great one 4 me

[Arno Ellmer]

This is a superb capture ,Gail !
To get one Swamp Boubou in the open is hard ,let alone a pair and facing each other with such good HA's.
Also superb pp work. Allround well done ! I like it a lot.

[arash_hazeghi]

very nice Gail, got the right HA for both. As for blue in black I am sure I am not seeing any in your original post but the extra sharpening helps. I would run sharpening on birds only and not the BG as this will cause noise.

[Bill Dix]

Love the comp and the two birds (both in focus) looking at one another. Exposure looks good, with difficult subjects to expose properly. Each post better than the last.

[dankearl]

The third time was the charm.
It looks very nice, no more improvement necessary for me.

[Ofer Levy]

Beautiful image! The sharpened version looks great. I would not reduce the blue in the black as it probably belongs there...