Critique Mandarins

Stuart Philpott

Stuart Philpott

Messages
4,306
Name
Stu
Edit My Images
Yes
I have quite a few images of this spectacular non native so thought I'd wach them in one place. Again these are all living wild in the forest of Dean. I guess i'm drawn to them by their fantastic plumage,but it's also so damn cool seeing a duck up a tree,more of that later as time allows. I have much to process yet. All processing in dpp4 usual tools Canon 1Div and 3002.8 ext1.4iii some might be shot with a 2Xextiii.
For sure some of these guys think I'm going to feed them and some possibly were baited. I'm not completely sure which though as they are taken over a number of visits . Ha I'd love to catch some kids fledging it' always amazed me that a tiny duckling can jump/fall that far from a hole in a tree without getting damaged truly amazing ,but I guess weighing so little is everything.

Here's the first taken around 10am in that strange light I mentioned with my earlier coot post
1/3200
f/4
iso2000

_70F4537 by Stuart Philpott, on Flickr

take care

Stu
 
•


I have never seen one "live", in person, so I
cannot comment on the bird but on the scene.

I like very much the negative space.
 
wezza13 said:
That really is some good light there Stu, very nice.

It seems that it's been over-saturated in PP but from the light you mentioned, I suspect you didn't even need to touch the saturation slider?
Click to expand...
Wez thanks yes I have touched the sat slider which is pretty rare for me,for some reason this image looked washed out especially the birds orange "cape" . So a good and fair point Wez much appreciated. The images around this particular shot look right Wez for that deep orange on the male's head but this one looked nothing like the rest we have just been comparing images taken within minutes of this and I wouldn't dream of touching sat on them. Wez I simply don't know why this one is so different at capture. Mate, I think the problems is that lifting the oranges via sat has altered the water too much,I'm really unsure here what I should do unless I just go into the colour pallette in DPP and try something there. Sat is notched up to 2 Wez,it's an incredibly powerful tool in dpp ,I feel,,so I use it quite rarely. My inexperience is showing here mate any thoughts?? how about this with the saturation set to one?

_70F4537 by Stuart Philpott, on Flickr

Daniel cheers again,mandarins are a favourite of wildfowl keepers. Over the years some have escaped and we have a few feral populations established here now. In many ways I wish we didn't have so many non natives here,but this one is such a joy,I'm not sure if they have any negative effects on our eco system though, I suspect it's little if any.

cheers both

Stu
 
I like your thinking on the framing Stu and he's given you a nice pose as well.

I rarely touch the saturation on DPP, I find it a bit heavy handed. I know its an extra step, but if I do want to tweak it at the DPP stage I prefer the individual sliders. That said, my way of working is producing a pretty flat RAW conversion then tweaking in PS. I know you're learning PS, so I'd re-visit this one when you get your head round it. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised how you could subtly tweak this one.

initial techs look good, so you've done it right at the capture stage, which is always the most important point - PP is just that final polish,

Mike
 
Hiya Mike,thanks for the thoughts,sadly my ps adventure has been scuppered I need to upgrade my graphics card at the very least.computer says NO!!. But being upbeat I can always come back to the raws Mike. i'm thrilled to be producing the odd pic that folks think are worth a second look frankly, it's all really positive. Mate thanks for the time they are wonderful little dux I've got a rake of them to post. It's just a small crop really Mike the framing wasn't that far away from this, I just cocked up my levels again so had to crop a bit to right things. when you say about the individual sliders do you mean in the colour section ?

Many thanks mate

Take care

Stu
pooley said:
I like your thinking on the framing Stu and he's given you a nice pose as well.

I rarely touch the saturation on DPP, I find it a bit heavy handed. I know its an extra step, but if I do want to tweak it at the DPP stage I prefer the individual sliders. That said, my way of working is producing a pretty flat RAW conversion then tweaking in PS. I know you're learning PS, so I'd re-visit this one when you get your head round it. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised how you could subtly tweak this one.

initial techs look good, so you've done it right at the capture stage, which is always the most important point - PP is just that final polish,

Mike
Click to expand...
 
Stuart Philpott said:
Hiya Mike,thanks for the thoughts,sadly my ps adventure has been scuppered I need to upgrade my graphics card at the very least.computer says NO!!. But being upbeat I can always come back to the raws Mike. i'm thrilled to be producing the odd pic that folks think are worth a second look frankly, it's all really positive. Mate thanks for the time they are wonderful little dux I've got a rake of them to post. It's just a small crop really Mike the framing wasn't that far away from this, I just cocked up my levels again so had to crop a bit to right things. when you say about the individual sliders do you mean in the colour section ?

Many thanks mate

Take care

Stu
Click to expand...

Yep Stu, in the edit view, the bottom row of tabs, 4th from the left - looks like 3 overlapping circles. It gives you options for adjustments in hue saturation and luminance for the different colours.

Mike
 
pooley said:
Yep Stu, in the edit view, the bottom row of tabs, 4th from the left - looks like 3 overlapping circles. It gives you options for adjustments in hue saturation and luminance for the different colours.

Mike
Click to expand...

Yup that's the one thanks Mike, I do use these occassionally. most of the time once I have the WB in the ballpark,ha which is not always the case:rolleyes: sometimes I struggle,then the rest usually seems to follow without tweaking the colour . But yes I have explored those took me ages to find out what hs andl meant though but I have me dpp giude handy now.My god i'm slow mate hay ho
Many thanks

Stu
 
pooley said:
Have you got Arash and Arties guide? It's a bit expensive but dpp4 tutorials are thin on the ground and this covers most stuff.
Click to expand...
Not yet Mike i'm aware of it and will grab it. Basically i'm trying to graft it out the hard way. Mike all of this digital stuff is really hard for me to assmilate,my brain simply doesn't want to know so pretty much my only option it to bang it in so hard it has no choice but to stick,my plan is then to get their guide and I'll have at least some semblence of what they are talking about. I know it's a bit zany,but I know how left field my brain works and this sort of method of learning seems to work out eventually for me.
Buddy are you aware of this I think Andreas linked it me,either that or I dug for it,but yes there isn't much about for DPP 4. Here's a link bro it might just be of use to you although i'd guess from what you produce you are pretty much sorted method wise http://gdlp01.c-wss.com/gds/0/0300015460/01/dpp-4-0-00-w-im-en.pdf

He he give me a ickle aminal and I'm away,give me a computer and i'm in a corridor with a 100doors in and someone's just turned the light out.My god I struggle with all this digital processing.
cheers bro thanks again
We'll get there it's just gonna be the slow road for me I'm cool with it Mike always knew this was going to be hard won,but I love it ,so tis all good

Stu
 
Stuart Philpott said:
Yup that's the one thanks Mike, I do use these occassionally. most of the time once I have the WB in the ballpark,ha which is not always the case:rolleyes: sometimes I struggle,then the rest usually seems to follow without tweaking the colour . But yes I have explored those took me ages to find out what hs andl meant though but I have me dpp giude handy now.My god i'm slow mate hay ho
Many thanks

Stu
Click to expand...


In DPP4, run the cursor over a neutral part of the image. Whilst doing this, look at th histogram in the top right, and as you move the cursor the RGB figures should all change independently. When they are very close to having the same value you're pretty much on neutral. From there, it's just a minor tweak for personal taste and memory of how the light was.

I'll take a look at that link later,

cheers

Mike
 
I think most of my favourite shots of the males are backlit on water Daniel. that is how i am drawn to shoot them , This was from the first time I was with them late in the day, and had some awareness of what late soft light could do to them. I got some with some fire in you might like from my second attempt,I had a bit more thought and experience the second time I adore them Daniel,the male is almost architectural.... the female stunningly simple and pastel and they sit in trees:cool::D
Wonderful subjects to just learn with,this feral population get fed, we feed them, on occasion , so they can get close enough for the lens to really shine fairly easily.

Stu
 
We have them nest around us, only Ducks afaik that nest in trees, they like to nest down inside tall nesting boxes or hollow old limbs, I like the shots and the light, shows off how wonderful these Ducks are. Also re the nesting, once the young hatch they climb from the low nesting and take a leap of faith falling from the high trees.
 
Last edited:
Cheers,for the reply Arthur,goldeneye are another tree nester one of few natives that I know of: i'm sure there are more natives mate,I think all the sawbills...smew goosander mergansers?? ,just can't think,but i've never seen them breeding down here. Arthur,I used to work with shaz looking after a large wildfowl collection so have a bit of an understanding and have handled many of these as tiny things. What you say about that leap of faith is thought to also trigger a feeding responce. The carolina wood duck another tree nester and mandarins were said to be very hard to get going as chicks ,when they were first kept in captivity. i've been told that dropping then from a height actually helped things along. i'm unsure if years of captivity have changed all this.. Sir David A showed some wonderful footage of that leap I think in life of birds. It's just amazing they can survive,but they weigh so little. Occasionally mallard use trees,but not holes to my knowledge,I might be wrong about the holes,I simply don't know,but certainly they do nest up a bit on occasion.

I think for most of us we don't get alot of contact with our native tree nesters, at breeding time.....me included,so that is why a duck up a tree is a sort of special sight. Well it has always made me smile anyway:)

Thanks Arthur as i've said before i'd rather we didn't have quite so many non natives here,but I do have a soft spot for this little fella

take care

Stu
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top