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Thread: As Usual: Head Hunter

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    Publisher Arthur Morris's Avatar
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    Default As Usual: Head Hunter

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    Whenever I see a new species one of my goals is to get close and create a tight head portrait. With the Whooper Swans at Lake Kusharo, Japan, doing that was easy. I created some very similar to this one with the 300 f/2.8 L IS II and a 1.4X III TC.

    This one was created with the Canon 800mm f/5.6L IS lens and the EOS-1D Mark IV. ISO 400. Evaluative metering +1/3 stop (in the soft early morning light): 1/1250 sec. at f/9. I stopped down a bit as I was close the the minimum focusing distance of the lens.

    Don't be shy; all honest comments welcome.

    ps: You can see a variety of Whooper Swan images and learn a ton by clicking here.
    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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    Lovely portrait, Commander Morris! The color, the color, the color! The whooper swans are stunning and you've done this fellow justice, to be sure...

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    Really nice portrait Artie. I really like the HA and the shy look in the eye as well as the great whites and yellows.

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    The look to this bird's eye as well as the way the dof melts away makes it an extremely appealing image. Love it.

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    Marvelous Portrait.

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    Amazing details and simple but striking colour pallette. I do prefer your swan sleeping in the snow portrait as I find it has a much stronger emotional connection.
    Just me being a big softy!

    Kind regards.
    Stu.

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    Macro and Flora Moderator Jonathan Ashton's Avatar
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    Looked at it three times already! I reckon it's just about perfectomondo, from the blacks to the whites. I have noted your recent comments regarding RGB values in ACR, I assume you applied them here. Great shot Artie from both technical point and from a compositional point of view.

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    Publisher Arthur Morris's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jonathan Ashton View Post
    Looked at it three times already! I reckon it's just about perfectomondo, from the blacks to the whites. I have noted your recent comments regarding RGB values in ACR, I assume you applied them here. Great shot Artie from both technical point and from a compositional point of view.
    Thanks Jon and the rest of the gang as well. On the Japan trip I actually started shooting a bit darker so as to avoid having to recover so much in the WHITEs. Now I strive to capture so that the WHITEs have no RGB values above 235 or so..... It may not be theoretically the right thing but it works. When I convert I try to avoid any RGB values in the white feathers greater than 230 using the Recovery Slider if need be.
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    Avian Moderator Randy Stout's Avatar
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    Artie:

    Lovely portrait.

    I am curious about your epiphany on the handling of whites. Could you elaborate on what sparked your change in thinking on the issue. We have been pushing to the right for a long time to capture the max amount of data possible. Do the current sensors capture enough info without that strategy, and thus allow us to get by with less post processing of the whites?

    Do tell

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    Artie,

    Beautiful portrait...with perfect detail throughout.

    Chas

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    Quote Originally Posted by Randy Stout View Post
    Artie:

    Lovely portrait.

    I am curious about your epiphany on the handling of whites. Could you elaborate on what sparked your change in thinking on the issue. We have been pushing to the right for a long time to capture the max amount of data possible. Do the current sensors capture enough info without that strategy, and thus allow us to get by with less post processing of the whites?

    Do tell

    Randy
    What sparked the change was me getting tired of having to move the Recovery Slider too far too often and having a few images where nothing I did would completely restore the detail. Saying the same thing in another way: there were times when an image would open in ACR with no flashing highlight warnings at all but no amount of Linear Burn and/or Detail Extractor in NIK Color Efex Pro would seem to restore density and detail to some areas of the WHITEs. Therefore, I began shooting darker as above. BTW, even shooting a bit darker I rarely get any speckling in the BLACKs when I hold down the ALT key and the BLACK slider at the same time so my BLACKs are not being underexposed on a regular basis even with the change.

    So what I am doing appears to be working fine with the "current sensors." I think :).
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    Publisher Arthur Morris's Avatar
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    ps: As you know, Detail Extractor usually at about 50% really rocks the WHITE detail. Folks who wish to get started either with Color Efex Pro and or other NIK stuff including Viveza which I am just learning and the incredible Silver Efex Pro, their B&W plug-in, can find out about saving 15% or more by clicking here and scrolling down a bit after reading the tutorial.
    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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    Hi Artie, your whites certained turned out fine in this - excellent plumage detail, and you have both blacks and yellows on the bill spot on. Love the blue of the water too.

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    The exposure is great , the whites look spot on . The DOF makes it look like a 3D image .

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    Artie, a signature image. great whites, head position, perfect comp., DOF and clean BG. big fan of this style. was the blue darker in the orig and did you have to pull up the curve? I have to do that many times for (White) Pelican shots.

    I am sure Nik stuff does great...what I do many times to get details in pure whites is make a local s-curve in that part of the curve( on RAW file in DPP). I think that works well as well.

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    BPN Member Don Lacy's Avatar
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    Wonderful image Artie great detail and perfect HA of course
    Don Lacy
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    A lovely photo. I really like the bit of shadow and looks like it would be very tough to get so much in focus. Seems intimate.

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    Nice composition and excellent expsoure control and sharpness.

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    Wonderful close up shot. Love the head angle, exposed perfectly, detail is amazing, and wonderful light.Well done.

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    This may be my favorite of your images to date. It's a very moving image. I've frequently had the same experience you mention of showing no blinkies in ACR, but in fact being blown out. Glad to hear it's not just me. I believe I will follow your lead and try taking a half stop off what looks good on the histogram, at least if there are whites involved. Now if I could just get that close to a Snow Goose...

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    Publisher Arthur Morris's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ron Sprunger View Post
    This may be my favorite of your images to date. It's a very moving image. I've frequently had the same experience you mention of showing no blinkies in ACR, but in fact being blown out. Glad to hear it's not just me. I believe I will follow your lead and try taking a half stop off what looks good on the histogram, at least if there are whites involved. Now if I could just get that close to a Snow Goose...
    Thanks all and Ron. While I like this image--it is as some folks noted--all about the head angle and position--it is probably not even in my top 25 from the Japan trip alone. That said I love head hunter images :).

    You can create head portraits of Snow (and Ross's) Geese some year's at Bosque in the afternoon with big glass and TCs on the left just past the pay booth. Late in the season might be best but I was only there once in late FEBR.
    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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