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OMG this portrait is truly outstanding. The feather details are out of this world. Love that slate BG.
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Thanks Marina, it was a truly remarkable experience watching these small guys scurrying about, collecting the grasses, and taking it into their burrows.
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A great portrait, William and it shows the colours superbly. Was this a significant crop? Te black on the neck looks a tad smeared.
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Agree. The face and eye detail is truly amazing, especially the iris. I love the withered grass and I am sure the bird did too :)
Makes you laugh at the blinds on Machias ....
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.
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Thanks guys, yes Mike it was a fair sized crop. it was one of the first images I captured on the island, until I discovered I could get real close. I liked the BG and the grass, on this one, I thought it was different. We were so close, my wife was laying on her stomach and using her iPad to video them :)
Hi Artie, thanks for that, I had to Google Machias. Looks good.
Will
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William awesome detailed portrait of one of my favorite birds.
-Tim
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"Rockstar" Portrait William!!
Come join me for a Custom Raptor Workshop starting this November 2019- January 2020.
P.M. me to inquire on dates, pricing and availabilities. Thank You.
www.davidsalemphotography.com
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Hey Bill, I was thinking that you knew of Machais ...A two hour boat ride, then packed into a cramped blind off sun angle for 45 minutes so as not to "scare" the puffins. 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,
E-mail me at samandmayasgrandpa@att.net.
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Wow... love it. All's been said, 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
www.amazinglight.smugmug.com
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Well caught Will I think you have a great image.
I am sorry to be at variance with every one - don't take it personally - it may well be be who is simply wrong, but something doesn't look quite right to me. Is there a colour cast on the head?
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Originally Posted by
Jonathan Ashton
Well caught Will I think you have a great image.
I am sorry to be at variance with every one - don't take it personally - it may well be be who is simply wrong, but something doesn't look quite right to me. Is there a colour cast on the head?
I can't see any cast on my monitor Jon
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Superb details on the face here Will, and the nesting material is a nice added bonus
Mike
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Magnificent portrait, William. Wonderful detail, colors, nesting material, and an outstanding slate grey BG. Well captured.
Geoffrey
http://http://500px.com/geoffreymontagu
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Originally Posted by
William Dickson
I can't see any cast on my monitor Jon
Will my apologies, I have misinterpreted, nothing wrong with the colours, my mistake, the cheek seemed sort of grey or slate coloured to me, I now think it is purely the light and it's angle.
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I have come back to this image many times. I agree that the pose and the details are very nice. Love the crop and the grass in the beak that are set off very nicely by that dark background. However I still keep coming back to the face and the neck/chest. Something about the face seems off to me. Instead of a soft and natural appearance it has a bit of a plastic like look to me. And the black feathers of the throat and whites of the upper chest are very soft and without fine feather details. That should be in focus as the bill in front of it and the back of the head behind it are both sharp.
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Originally Posted by
Isaac Grant
I have come back to this image many times. I agree that the pose and the details are very nice. Love the crop and the grass in the beak that are set off very nicely by that dark background. However I still keep coming back to the face and the neck/chest. Something about the face seems off to me. Instead of a soft and natural appearance it has a bit of a plastic like look to me. And the black feathers of the throat and whites of the upper chest are very soft and without fine feather details. That should be in focus as the bill in front of it and the back of the head behind it are both sharp.
That is precisely what I though Isaac but I came to the conclusion that it was the quality and angle of light... and I must admit in view of the fact that I checked colour balance and no one else mentioned anything I thought I must be wrong.
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Here is a crop of the original RAW, without any adjustment. Maybe this will help.
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And here is the full sized RAW, you can see why I cropped it so tight
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I think it was something in the processing for sure. The post with no adjustments seems better to me on the face and the blacks of the neck have more details and do not look smoothed out. The bird has the soft and natural look to it (not soft as in not sharp but soft as in the texture of the feathers) In addition the whites of the chest seem whiter and have a bit less of a bluish cast on my screen than the original post. Wouldn't it be great if we all the same screens and all calibrated the same so we did not have so much variation in what we see! This is such a pretty shot that I think it is worth it to revisit the original and make some adjustments.
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Originally Posted by
Isaac Grant
I think it was something in the processing for sure. The post with no adjustments seems better to me on the face and the blacks of the neck have more details and do not look smoothed out. The bird has the soft and natural look to it (not soft as in not sharp but soft as in the texture of the feathers) In addition the whites of the chest seem whiter and have a bit less of a bluish cast on my screen than the original post. Wouldn't it be great if we all the same screens and all calibrated the same so we did not have so much variation in what we see! This is such a pretty shot that I think it is worth it to revisit the original and make some adjustments.
Thanks for your observations Isaac, I should add, that I am using a 27" iMac 5K, it looks real good, on my monitor. Its only the second 'Rockstar' I have had from David Salem, so I am fair chuffed with it.
Will
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I guess it could be the monitor Will. Davis is usually spot on. I did check it on my monitor and my iPhone 7 as well and had the same impression on both but who knows.
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Hi Jon, thanks for taking the time doing this. Yes, it looks good, just thought, when I went to process, the BG looked a wee bit messy! I like it, but I like my close crop better.
Will