Niels kindly sent the RAW file as I requested. In fact, he sent four of them. Though it would be pretty hard to tell looking at the original post, the RAW files were all significantly over-exposed. I picked my favorite pose and started from scratch.
Thank you for offering Artie and thanks for showing in this example of what I need to change and I prefer your image
Lately I have seen a common theme from beginning nature photographers: over-exposed RAW files that are then cropped to the max.
Guity, when it comes to the cropping, it is difficult for me to leave more space as I want to show the object bigger in size.
As I posted in several spots here recently, folks need to study exposure. Digital exposure could not be any easier and it takes only two minutes to learn. Work in manual mode. Push the histogram to the right as far as possible without getting blinkies on the subject;
folks need to learn to watch for and avoid blinkies on the subject. They are a mortal sin. Folks need to learn to point their shadow at the subject. And lastly,
folks needs to learn to avoid the huge, huge crops; they destroy image quality. And crops like Niels' crop here are totally unpleasing. Nobody but beginners want to see a bird stuffed into the frame... Heck, I did the same thing 33 years ago :) Give the birds room to live in the frame.
After seeing your videos on youtube I have changed to back focus and use manual mode, however when the mating action started I was too excited and the pictures was overexposed.
I put in ten minutes of work to make this one presentable. RAW conversion in DPP 4. -.17 on the Brightness. -2 on the Highlights. +2 on the Shadows. Once in Photoshop I had to use extreme measures on the hot WHITEs: Detail Extractor followed by some refined Quick Masks to cover the WHITEs that could not be saved. Then some Patch Tool work to smooth things out and a reverse S-curve to reduce the contrast.
Best of all, these exact topics were covered in detail in a blog post from two days ago; check out
Machine-gun Mike's Best Shot and Lots of Exposing for Bright Whites Lessons for All... by clicking
here. If you do not subscribe to the blog I can guarantee that you will after reading this post.
Thank you for the link, I will look into this and incorporate.
Want to learn; try these for starters:
ABP to learn the basics.
ABP II to learn digital exposure.
The DPP RAW Conversion Guide--DPP is fast and simple and yields the most accurate color.
Digital Basics to learn to keep from ruining your images in Photoshop. DB includes dozens of great PS tips.
APTATS I and II to learn Quick Masking and Layer Masking.
While the list above might be daunting all of the material is actually easy to learn. My great strength is in writing clear how-to. I can only wish that everything above had been around when I began 33 years ago...