Critique Hadeda Ibis

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Hadeda_Ibis_1.jpg


processing was difficult, (for me), because of the extreme light and shadow
I feel that my processing misses some of the original

Comment would be appreciated

here is the original

_DSC3079.jpg
 
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Personally quite like the edit Bill, Only issue I would personally say is you have added abit too much fill light, I would say if you added a slight bit more blacks back into the image would help slightly, Apart from that a nice capture (y)
 
Guess I might have tried to leave the background as it was but to tone down the rather harsh light on the birds themselves which I guess would have the effect of lessening the overall contrast? I say 'try' of course because I've got no idea how that would turn out lol
 
Guess I might have tried to leave the background as it was but to tone down the rather harsh light on the birds themselves which I guess would have the effect of lessening the overall contrast? I say 'try' of course because I've got no idea how that would turn out lol

Thanks Etienne

white or highlights - once they are "blown" they are "blown" …….. not much you can do as there is nothing there to adjust
 
Thanks Etienne

white or highlights - once they are "blown" they are "blown" …….. not much you can do as there is nothing there to adjust

Are the white bits on the wings blown then? I thought they might be white feathers or something but I'm not familiar with the bird :\
 
Are the white bits on the wings blown then? I thought they might be white feathers or something but I'm not familiar with the bird :\

It is more the result of the sun's reflection on their feather structure

It was a very bright day, I was in a canoe, using a Nikon 300 f4 (non VR), lens, so I set the Av at f4 to get a high shutter speed because of movement, (my son was "paddling!") - the shutter speed was 1/2000th sec at ISO 400 and +1EV because of the extreme shadows along the river bank
 
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It is more the result of the sun's reflection on their feather structure

It was a very bright day, I was in a canoe, using a Nikon 300 f4 (non VR), lens, so I set the Av at f4 to get a high shutter speed because of movement - the shutter speed was 1/2000th sec at ISO 400 and +1EV because of the extreme shadows along the river bank

Yeah that's a tough one. Recently I've been getting annoyed at getting home and wishing I'd done things a little different! Because of that I've started taking a few different exposed shots so I've got a choice when I get home lol. That's no help if you're trying to capture that precise moment but for wildlife portrait sorta shots then it's not bad. Maybe one day I'll just be able to get it right first time! :/
 
Lots of people think bright sun light is good for taking images - the reverse is generally true …….. just IMHO
 
Bill I actually prefer the original to the 2 edits. The spotlight effect of the light has made it very difficult to balance the exposure with the background- so the 'environmental' shot is going be tricky here- hence the lack of contrast which Joe and Etienne pointed out. The upside of the 'harsh' light is that it's nicely isolated your subjects from the background- I'd go with that and actually clone or darken some of the background- particularly the brown bit at the bottom left.
It might not be what you intended- but I think the shot works.
 
Lots of people think bright sun light is good for taking images - the reverse is generally true …….. just IMHO

Agree with you there Bill, a bright overcast day seems to work best for me and produces the best colours on the birds, For example I have been recently shooting a series of Kingfisher shots and having a bright dull day has helped bring out the colours, when strong sunlight is on the bird you get the white line going down the kingfishers back nearly a stop over exposed, if on a overcast day this does not happen and if it does its easily recoverable from the highlights.
 
Look at the eyes they appear to be much more alive in the original than in the processed image.
 
So lets get this right Bill, you are in a canoe with the son doing the hard work whilst you are sat back photographing these beauties :clap: it's a hard life eh :rolleyes:

Original image for me i'm afraid, the edits have taken away the catchlights in the eyes and all adjustments look like they were global (ie a single layer)
In CS i would be looking at a minimum of three separate layer adjustments for a image like this.
 
So lets get this right Bill, you are in a canoe with the son doing the hard work whilst you are sat back photographing these beauties :clap: it's a hard life eh :rolleyes:

Original image for me i'm afraid, the edits have taken away the catchlights in the eyes and all adjustments look like they were global (ie a single layer)
In CS i would be looking at a minimum of three separate layer adjustments for a image like this.

Thanks All for your comments

The Ibis - I started with the original and when I took it and really liked it ……. but over the last few months I have been playing with CS6 and revisiting some of my nature shots …… and that's when the trouble starts

Here's one I took this morning ……. just a simple jpeg ….. it was quite bright so with your eye you never really see the true colours of the frog

The original

frog_original.jpg



Frog simple process in CS6
I hit Auto tone, Auto Contrast, and Autocolour ….. and this is what I get

frog_CS6.jpg
 
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It has recently been pointed out to me that images should be processed to produce what you want them to be so, which do you prefer and why? I prefer the second image as a good starting point.
 
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