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Thread: away from the water and into the desert

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    Default away from the water and into the desert

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    I took this at Bill Forbes Elephant Head Pond this weekend and was able to get several of this species which is one of my favorites.
    I like the bird color, sharpness, etc. but since the high desert still has not "greened up" I'm struggling with a gray bird with a partly gray background and wanted to see what you pros thought.
    7D, 500 F4, ISO 400 F 5, 1/800 sec. just at first sign of the sun.
    Comments and critiques not only appreciated but encouraged.
    Thanks for looking.

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    Super Moderator arash_hazeghi's Avatar
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    nice light ad pose good perch, good details the OOF branch in the lower right is a bit distracting and the red channel is blown. The change of color in the BG is somewhat abrupt maybe it's an artifact of processing (too much saturation?)

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    Nice bird, pose, and ocotillo but way over-saturated. Adding 60-90 points of CYAN to the REDs in Selective Color works much better than desaturating the REDs. The GREENs are too saturated as well.... Ditto Arash on the LRC. Lastly, with the green stuff o-o-f it is distracting. A simpler set-up with a cleaner background and foreground might have worked very well.
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    Lifetime Member gail bisson's Avatar
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    This is a tough position to be in Stan- a bird you love and a problematic image. I agree with all of the above comments. Getting rid of the OOF branch in the RLC will really help.
    Gail

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    Thanks guys, here's a repost. I did not add any overall saturation, that was just the bird's color of vibrant red. I did add some green and backed it down with Art's comments. And thanks for the point on adding cyan's as it looked better than subtracting reds which I did as well. Hopefully the switch from landscape to portrait helps save an image of a gorgeous bird.Name:  _MG_6470-Edit-BPN-redo.jpg
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    Stan, The image as presented looks too saturated on all fronts. The birds seems to be partly in the shade (top part), and you are slightly off light angle here. The oof branch on the right does not add anything and should go. The oof part of the green leafs is distracting as well. Wonder what the result would have been if you were straight down light angle here. You probably would have lost the bright yellow part in the bkgd, which would help the overall tonality in the bkgd, although you would still have to deal with the oof green leafs.

    Stan, the repost looks way better overall, and is the way to go here.
    Last edited by Clemens Vanderwerf; 03-02-2012 at 11:24 AM. Reason: Saw the repost

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    Stan
    I agree with Clemens.
    I also think with your being in Phoneix, you shouldn't worry about a remake. Now that you've learned how Bill does his setups, you can find some space to put up a temporary setup - try the river that is free flowing west of Ray. Find a place along the river. Plenty of these birds along that area. You put up food and a drip in the desert nearby, and they'll be all over your setup in less than a few hours.

    (You won't find Ray on the map - the copper mine obilterated it. Its Ray Junction - where the railroad from the mine meets the Copper Basin Main line-- nearby-- where you want to go west along the river. Find the access points. Look on the map near Kearney). Yes you could access the salt or the Verde, but these areas are overrun with people driving down onto the river bars.....
    Last edited by Don Nelson; 03-02-2012 at 03:35 PM.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Don Nelson View Post
    Stan
    I agree with Clemens.
    I also think with your being in Phoneix, you shouldn't worry about a remake. Now that you've learned how Bill does his setups, you can find some space to put up a temporary setup - try the river that is free flowing west of Ray. Find a place along the river. Plenty of these birds along that area. You put up food and a drip in the desert nearby, and they'll be all over your setup in less than a few hours.

    (You won't find Ray on the map - the copper mine obilterated it. Its Ray Junction - where the railroad from the mine meets the Copper Basin Main line-- nearby-- where you want to go west along the river. Find the access points. Look on the map near Kearney). Yes you could access the salt or the Verde, but these areas are overrun with people driving down onto the river bars.....
    Now that the discussion has turned to set-ups I've got to recommend Alan Murphy's A Guide to Songbird Set-up Photography.

    I will be back when I can to address the RED over-saturation issue. Note: see the REDucation thread in the BPN's ER forum.
    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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    Don, thanks for the area. Unfortunately people are even thick along the Gila and/or San Pedro as I know that area also. I love going to Bill's as I consider him a friend. I hope no one lets my one poor choice of background cause them to avoid the area. I don't think Alan Murphy or the McDonalds would be regular's there if it wasn't a good place.
    That being said my goal is to use many of my own set ups this year in several different areas. And I own and use Murphy's cd which I find very useful. How to carry all the equipment I want to use to some out of the way waterholes I know remains my biggest hurdle but I'll figure it out.
    And Art I look forward to read more on the desaturation of red as I have a lot of northern cardinals and more of the above species to process.
    I still have much to learn so appreciate all the comments and keep them coming.
    Last edited by Stan Cunningham; 03-02-2012 at 04:22 PM. Reason: add info

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    Stan, Were you able to find the REDucation thread in the ER?
    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.

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    E-mail me at samandmayasgrandpa@att.net.










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    Yes I did Art, thanks. Juan's explanation on the camera makes sense but I like the adjustment with cyan more than desaturating. I have some cardinals to work on next and hope that comes in handy.

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    Very nice colors and composition.

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