***Just Another Snowy***

[Yves Guillot]

Here is another snowy in flight.


Canon EOS 7D Canon IS 600 mm 1:4.0 - 1/3200s f/4.0 iso800 Full frame

Should I shred it or keep it?

I have mixed feelings about it because of the clipped wings (even if i like the sky color a lot) and would like to have your opinion.

All comments are welcome!

Thanks in advance! :D

[arash_hazeghi]

I'd go tighter concentrating on the head, it might work that way...The image shows a strong color cast and I wish the sun was behind you. looks like there was some processing in the eye as well, pupil doesn't look round.

[Dave Leroy]

Sometimes it is hard to decide. I like Arash's idea of a tighter crop with perhaps a bit more room on top. Too bad about the light being on the other side of owl, but you may have lost the lovely bg.
If you decide to let this one go there is always next year.

[Marina Scarr]

Lovely background. Agree with Arash on a tighter crop. You seem to have some pretty nice details in the face feathers. Look forward to seeing a recrop.

[Yves Guillot]

thank you all for your comments!
Arash : the color cast is not a problem for me : I just like it as is and it is due to the reflection of the snow under the wing and the special quality of light present during the shot. So, it does reflect the true scenery as it happened. But you may hjave ad ifferent opinion and it is welcome. The eye was only slightly lightened to give it a better punch but it was not modified and it is round on my original.
Marina : here is the recrop : kept 48% of the original. Hope you like it!

[arash_hazeghi]

The color cast is not from reflection of the snow, snow is white not blue. Cast comes from incorrect white balance and processing or a poor monitor or both, I noticed all of your snowy photos have this problem. A snowy owl plumage is white not cyan and blue.

The pupil looks hexagonal with sharp edges as opposed to round. Looks like something was cloned around it...not natural as presented.

[Yves Guillot]

Thank you Arash for your comment.

About the pupil of the eye : I understand what you see but as I said it is as is : I did not touch it except magic wand and curves to lighten it. Sometimes the compression in jpeg can produce this kind of phenomenon.

When you say that snow is white not blue : you are right of course but under some sky conditions eg at sunset, what you see looks as blue snow, not white specially in the shadows. Living in San Francisco, you might not see this phenomenon quite often under such conditions as we have here in winter.
I agree that the plumage of a snowy is white but again if you look at it under sunset light it will be kind of yellowish, right?

But still maybe I have a poor monitor or my white balance is incorrectly processed or both as you say, could you then just simply show me this picture as you think it should look according to you? This might probably help in this debate.

[arash_hazeghi]

Thank you Arash for your comment.

About the pupil of the eye : I understand what you see but as I said it is as is : I did not touch it except magic wand and curves to lighten it. Sometimes the compression in jpeg can produce this kind of phenomenon.

When you say that snow is white not blue : you are right of course but under some sky conditions eg at sunset, what you see looks as blue snow, not white specially in the shadows. Living in San Francisco, you might not see this phenomenon quite often under such conditions as we have here in winter.
I agree that the plumage of a snowy is white but again if you look at it under sunset light it will be kind of yellowish, right?

But still maybe I have a poor monitor or my white balance is incorrectly processed or both as you say, could you then just simply show me this picture as you think it should look according to you? This might probably help in this debate.

Bonjour Yves,

I will try to correct the white balance and post here tonight, check back in a bit.

In the meanwhile check this to see your monitor is OK http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/

BTW, I grew up in a place that was 10,000ft high and we had snow all the time :)

Merci

[Yves Guillot]

Hi Arash!

Just have a look to this : you'll see what I mean about blue snow : it is the cover of a book by photographer Wayne Lynch : Owls of the Unibted States and Canada :
http://www.amazon.com/Owls-United-St...3504902&sr=1-1

[arash_hazeghi]

Hi Arash!

Just have a look to this : you'll see what I mean about blue snow : it is the cover of a book by photographer Wayne Lynch : Owls of the Unibted States and Canada :
http://www.amazon.com/Owls-United-St...3504902&sr=1-1

Yves,

Many photographers are not aware of color cast issue in the digital age, I have seen published photos with terrible casts, sometimes it might be artistic but in general it is not desired because it is not natural. Color correction is a key step in producing images that look natural when viewed on different screens.

The best way to check if your image has a cast is to use the eyedropper tool in Photoshop. choose 5X5 average and sample an area in the neutral feathers. Your original image reads (RGB)=(160,170,200) the high B value indicates a strong blue cast. There are at least 10 different ways to correct this problem but the easiest way to get rid of it is to use "color balance" tool in Photoshop (Image-->Adjustment-->Color Balance) . Move the lowest slider from blue towards yellow and the top slider from cyan towards red by about 10 points until the whites look neutural. This will cause the image to become a bit dark, use the levels tool to adjust midtone brightness. after the adjustment the neutral area reads (RGB)=(186,189,205) so it is white now.




you can do better by starting from RAW and doing a more careful adjustment.

your monitor also needs to be calibrated for accurate color rendition

[Yves Guillot]

Thank you very much for your explanation Arash! I now clearly can see what you mean.

But on what do you base your judgment to say that it is white now? The balance between RGB? In a previous explanation, http://www.birdphotographers.net/for...-in-Pink-Light, Don Nelson stated that to be white the 3 color channels had to be equal : do you apply the same thinking?

I visited the suggested web site ysterday night and did some tests up to the brightness one where I think I did not understand what was the correct screen but mine did not look uniform at all. But all the previous screens were ok with my monitor which is a Samsung SyncMaster910MP (LCD/TV monitor) by the way.

About your above explanation, when you say : «use the levels tool to adjust midtone brightness» : not sure I understand how to do this. I used image>adjustments>levels>options and click on enhanced monochromatic contrast. Is that how you do it?

Samething applies with the raw treatment : not sure to know on which sliders to act upon.

Thanks for your help!

[Yves Guillot]

Hello again Arash!

I tried with the raw conversion : clicking on the HSL/ Grayscale button (fourth from the left) and clicking on the saturation tab and put the blue slider (third from the bottom) at minus (-100) and got this on a sample under the eye : RGB valules almost equal at 178-179-183 . What do you think?

[arash_hazeghi]

looks much better Yves! you may want to keep just a tad more blue to give just a "hint" of ambiance if you like it that way too.

you are getting there!