Hi everyone.
I have seen some masterful images of this beauty posted here in the past.
Hope to live upto the works of other luminaries here.
EOS 1Dx Mk II, 500 f/4, 1.4X, 500 mm, f/5, 1/400/ ISO 1000, Spot metering, Manual exposure.
Processed in DPP4, PS CC2017, Curves, sharpening, cropped about 40%.
All moments & critique welcome.
Thanks
Abhijit
Cool bird with cool crab. The white behind the bird is less than ideal and with the light from behind the bird the breast, and more importantly, the front of the face from the eye to the base of the bill, are in shade. I'd suggest a NIK 40/40 Tonal Contrast/Detail Extractor recipe to improve it (but there are many other ways to open up the face).
with love, artie
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What a great looking bird. And good that you got a nice DOF to keep the crab in focus. Wonderful colors. Artie's good points noted. I also feel it is a bit tight in the frame; maybe needs a little more room on the left.
Hi Abhijit, beautiful bird, wonderful crab for prey. I think Artie's critique and suggestion were spot on. As I am not familiar with NIK Software I did a quick edit in Lightroom and Photoshop showing the possibilities. My selections were quick and not refined but it will give you an idea of the possibilities this image offers. Thank you for sharing.
Joe Przybyla
"Sometimes I do get to places just as God is ready to have somebody click the shutter"... Ansel Adams
Hi Abhijit, beautiful bird, wonderful crab for prey. I think Artie's critique and suggestion were spot on. As I am not familiar with NIK Software I did a quick edit in Lightroom and Photoshop showing the possibilities. My selections were quick and not refined but it will give you an idea of the possibilities this image offers. Thank you for sharing.
Thanks for the re-post and the excellent job.
Great job with the white area. How did you do it?
with love, artie
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.
Check out the new SONY e-Guide and videos that I did with Patrick Sparkman here. Ten percent discount for BPN members,
Hi Artie and Abhijit, regarding my edit... the first things I did was to take the image into Lightroom and sharpen it more. Then using the Adjustment Brush in Lightroom I brushed over the areas I thought need to be lightened and have the shadows opened, adjusting the sliders until it looked right. Then I took the image into Photoshop and using the Magic Wand I selected the background adding the different tonalities until the whole background was selected. Normally for an original image I would zoom up on the selection and follow it around adding and subtracting areas as needed. In this case I did not because I wanted to do it quickly for example to look at. I blended in the white/light areas behind the bird I used the Paint Brush set to a opacity of 40%. I selected the green color and brushed over the white background. Then using the same Paint Brush and opacity I selected the color of the darker areas and gently brushed some of the into the green areas where the white was to blend the background together. It could be done much better but I did it quickly to show the possibilities.
Last edited by Joseph Przybyla; 11-17-2017 at 06:07 PM.
Joe Przybyla
"Sometimes I do get to places just as God is ready to have somebody click the shutter"... Ansel Adams
Wonderful bird and very well photographed and presented Abhijit. The light here is pretty nice and has shown of the spectacular colours of the bird really well. Detail is excellent and the bird's pose very nice. Having the crab in bill is a great bonus. I'm not bothered by the white blobs in the background. As for tone, I'd go somewhere between your original post and Joe's repost. Agree that more room on the left would be good but this is still a really wonderful shot.
Glenn, thanks for your kind words. This bird is truly one of God's great gifts & just a reminder for us humans that , before we begin to think of ourselves as the Lords of this planet, we need to lok up to nature, get awestruck by the sheer audacity of its creativity & then shut up in all humility.
As for the shot, i have learnt a few things here about processing. But i will say this that the way the white 'BLOB" behind the bird actually makes the outline of the crab stand out was the reason i tried to keep it at that.
Thanks again
Abhijit