Zero Five Hundred

Richard C. Jones · 28 Apr 2016

I was up at 04:00 and at the marsh by 05:00. It was a disaster, this is all I got with the low light. It was my first time shooting from a blind. My 6'-4" 260 lb frame was barely
fitting in the pop up blind and the tiny folding chair was an instrument of torture, cursing my two steel hips and left steel knee to seize up, I only lasted an hour.
I will try again with a better seating arrangement and better camera settings. I would like critique on this please.

pooley · 28 Apr 2016

Richard,

Fair play for getting u and struggling with the hide at silly o'clock, always fun!

There are 2 main issues with the shot as I see it, and one further tweak. The first thing I noticed was the blue cast which seems at odds with the golden light. Easy removal in a saturation layer.

Next is the noise coming through. This is not a 'fine detail' shot, so again easy to fix to a degree.

The last little tweak is it needed rotating. If you go to the crop tool in PS, click the 'straighten' box , and draw a line between 2 easily distinguishable points - in this image the end of the beak of the left hand bird, and the end of it's beak in the reflection, then you should end up with a perfect line for the reflection.

You have 'no' ticked in your edit panel, but I did 2 quick and dirty options on a final result - let me know if you want me to post them.

Mike

Richard C. Jones · 28 Apr 2016

Please do mike as I'm anxious to see your edits. I was not sure the image was level or not, thanks for the heads up. These were not the best conditions for an old fart with orthopedic problems, just walking to the site was a major effort, but I do love shooting wildlife. This is not a good quality image but I liked the mood and morning sunrise light.

pooley · 28 Apr 2016

Richard C. Jones said:
I liked the mood and morning sunrise light.

Sometimes that's what it's all about!

Anyway, these are just 2 very quick edits, the first is done with the 3 points I suggested above

Then, as a love it / hate it idea I thought I'd try lowering the blacks. As there isn't much detail in the birds I though it might be worth trying something closer to a silhouette.

Mike

Richard C. Jones · 28 Apr 2016

Thanks for your effort Mike I tried the silhouette earlier and wanted more detail in the geese. I'm still ambivalent, will play with this some more and post back. Thanks for your interest Mike I very much appreciate your input.

Richard C. Jones · 28 Apr 2016

Here's my second edit, please critique Mike.

pooley · 29 Apr 2016

Hi Richard, sorry for the delay - I was on a night shift!

I can see what you were going for but unfortunately the data just isn't there to produce this kind of result from this file. Pushing up the shadows to brighten the birds has just left them soft and noisy and lacking in any fine detail.

If you go for this type of shot again, I'd suggest you expose to get the birds just as you want them on the RAW file, which as a guess is about a 1- 2 stop difference to what you had in your OP, then use masks on your layers in PS to keep the birds correct and pull the exposure in the rest of the frame down. It's a fine balancing act to keep it looking natural, but you have to get the birds right at the shooting stage.

Right - bedtime for me now!

Mike

Osmo · 29 Apr 2016

Hi Richard,

Love the dedication with that shot. I would have been happy with that as my current hit rate is about 1%!

Like has been said previously, there is a very strong purple tinge (on my screen) on their feathers as such I think Pooley's second edit is great but the distraction for me from what is otherwise a nice shot, with a great calmness to it, is the reeds and reflection on the left. A crop to just have the geese looking into the space on the right might look really nice.

Like I said my hit rate is about 1% so please feel free to ignore me!

Richard C. Jones · 29 Apr 2016

pooley said:
Hi Richard, sorry for the delay - I was on a night shift!

I can see what you were going for but unfortunately the data just isn't there to produce this kind of result from this file. Pushing up the shadows to brighten the birds has just left them soft and noisy and lacking in any fine detail.

If you go for this type of shot again, I'd suggest you expose to get the birds just as you want them on the RAW file, which as a guess is about a 1- 2 stop difference to what you had in your OP, then use masks on your layers in PS to keep the birds correct and pull the exposure in the rest of the frame down. It's a fine balancing act to keep it looking natural, but you have to get the birds right at the shooting stage.

Right - bedtime for me now!

Mike

Thanks Mike, this was a rescue mission from the start! Garbage in, garbage out. I tried but as you said it wasn't there in the file. Next time. Thanks for looking and your helpful support.

Richard C. Jones · 29 Apr 2016

Osmo said:
Hi Richard,

Love the dedication with that shot. I would have been happy with that as my current hit rate is about 1%!

Like has been said previously, there is a very strong purple tinge (on my screen) on their feathers as such I think Pooley's second edit is great but the distraction for me from what is otherwise a nice shot, with a great calmness to it, is the reeds and reflection on the left. A crop to just have the geese looking into the space on the right might look really nice.

Like I said my hit rate is about 1% so please feel free to ignore me!

I agree with your comments Osmo about cropping. I had planned to do it but backed off because it brought the geese too tight to the left edge, I think though cropping out the bulrushes would make the improvement you suggest. I do appreciate you looking and taking the time to comment, thanks.