Greetings. Good pose with the foot up & good detail. I think a bit more contrast would work to separate the subject from the bg, perhaps, selectively on the subject. The bg is a bit busy with tones near the beak and face, but some extra contrast there would give some separation from the bg. Mainly contast toward a black point.
Ron, I have to disagree with Michael this time - I think the image is way overly contrasty as is. It is crispy with bright whites and crushed blacks. I lowered the contrast in this re-do and adjusted the color balance a little bit away from red, but the better solution is softer light. Harsh light on both the bird and water rob the image of detail and makes it hard on the eyes. Since the bg is the same color and level as the bird, making it stand out is going to be a matter of having separate layers and lowering the level of the bg.
"It is an illusion that photos are made with the camera... they are made with the eye, heart, and head." - Henri Cartier Bresson
Thanks Kerry, I like the changes you made and appreciate the suggestions. I know the light was getting a bit harsh late in the morning. I got up at 5:00 AM to drive to a wildlife refuge on the New Jersey shore, but still did not get there in time for the best lighting. I suppose one really needs to be in position to take photographs at the crack of dawn, if not the very late afternoon.
Ron, you are correct! When working birds in the morning it is best to get out in the field before the sun rises. The "magic light" is typically the hour before and after sunrise and sunset.
"It is an illusion that photos are made with the camera... they are made with the eye, heart, and head." - Henri Cartier Bresson
Ron, I have to disagree with Michael this time - I think the image is way overly contrasty as is. It is crispy with bright whites and crushed blacks. I lowered the contrast in this re-do and adjusted the color balance a little bit away from red, but the better solution is softer light. Harsh light on both the bird and water rob the image of detail and makes it hard on the eyes. Since the bg is the same color and level as the bird, making it stand out is going to be a matter of having separate layers and lowering the level of the bg.
Kerry, I agree that the harsh light is the major issue. Given the harsh light, to my eye decreasing contrast gives the impression of softening of focus which was my first impression of the shot. Contrast taken in the darks I think improves the impression of sharpness... JMO. The Lightness curve in Lab mode tells a different tale about the darks than the Luma curve in RGB mode. Also in the lightness curve there is also a differentiation between the subject and the background which can be used to selectively soften the bg... The second curve also takes a little edge off the whites.
Used two separate curves to first contrast in the darks and then to soften the bg.
The left curve for Lab Mode Lightness shows the increase in darks contrast. Notice the original histogram shows no black point and this adjustment sets one.
If you sample the image for the second curve, you'll find that the bg is mosly in the large hump in the upper part of the histogram while the subject is mostly in the left side of the histogram. The second curve uses this to selectively flatten (in contrast and brightness) the bg in the right part of the curve.
Result of both curves in previous post.
By the way, the histogram difference between Lightness in Lab mode and Luma in RGB mode is a poster child for the challenges in getting information out of histograms. The Luma reading looks like there is a black point and, perhaps, some lifting is in order... maybe the crushed blacks Kerry is referring to. The Lightness histogram shows a lack of a black point with the darkest pixels showing Lightness about 10%. Adjusting the Lab curve to set a black point doesn't significantly increase the darks in the RGB mode histogram (!). Luma calculation in RGB mode has some to be desired for levels type adjustments, particularly for images that are dominated by blues and reds.
Glossy Ibis
Originally Posted by Kerry Perkins
Ronald Zigler thanked for this post
