A pair of courting Great Crested Grebe....

[RedRobin]

^ Camera info on Flickr - Click the image.

This is a substantial crop from the original image shot RAW on Canon 100-400mm L II (at 400mm) + 1.4x III on handheld 7D2 (on my knees in mud!) and is a little late in the season to catch them doing their famous courtship dance but it's my first shot of a pair together. Late afternoon as the sun was going down.

Sometimes focussing on capturing evocative light is more important than the science of photography... in my opinion.

Revised post-processing....

Please feel free to discuss and/or comment.

 

[Catalin Chimerel]

beautiful!

 

[gramps]

Nice to see them Robin but the image looks excessively warm to me

 

[Neil B]

Nice to see them Robin but the image looks excessively warm to me

Well they have had a heatwave down south so anything is possible
I would revisit the editing on this one Robin.

 

[RedRobin]

Nice to see them Robin but the image looks excessively warm to me

....5287 K Daylight.

The reedbed reflections were golden - That's what inspired the shot.

 

[RedRobin]

@gramps and @Neil B -

I'm interested why you feel that the image is "excessively warm" when it's 5287 K Daylight and that the whites aren't looking over warm. I would like to learn something from your answers, please . Or indeed from anyone else who feels the same.

 

[gramps]

Personally I'm not a user of 'K' selections, preferring Auto WB as I find in most instances it produces very close to the scene.
I can understand the reflection of the reeds on a sunny day, or at sunset would produce a nice golden surface to the water but for me it wouldn't unduly affect the feathers on the birds.
Having photographed and watched GC Grebes regularly for several weeks now, the colours of your birds look over saturated.
Whether you have captured the scene 100% spot on I cannot say as I wasn't there ... I merely offered my opinion of the image, that it was excessively warm, if you know it isn't, then fair enough

 

[sitemaster]

the colour really enhances this shot

 

[BillN_33]

I'd just say No! Robin ......... no point in saying why .. IMHO you just need to rethink this image .......... but you probably like it anyway


Is there any detail in the bird, especially around the eye and this is exacerbated by the blown white, or did you intend it to be a kind of "impressionist" shot

The colours are strange

 

[RedRobin]

Personally I'm not a user of 'K' selections, preferring Auto WB as I find in most instances it produces very close to the scene.
I can understand the reflection of the reeds on a sunny day, or at sunset would produce a nice golden surface to the water but for me it wouldn't unduly affect the feathers on the birds.
Having photographed and watched GC Grebes regularly for several weeks now, the colours of your birds look over saturated.
Whether you have captured the scene 100% spot on I cannot say as I wasn't there ... I merely offered my opinion of the image, that it was excessively warm, if you know it isn't, then fair enough

....My camera is set to AWB (Automatic White Balance) and I have added a bit of Vibrancy rather than Saturation, such that the K value is not excessive for daylight. I felt that the RAW image needed lifting to represent better the scene I enjoyed. And that's the key : I prefer in most cases to fine-tune the RAW file to better represent what I saw rather than necessarily be a virgin capture. I don't shrink from being creative and prefer my images to be as evocative as I can make them without going OTT but I'm still learning how to post-process in new software as Apple are giving up on Aperture.

I am grateful for your comments, gramps, and may have another look at this image or at least bear them in mind for other shots.

 

[RedRobin]

^ Closer to the original RAW file.

@gramps @BillN_33 @Neil B - Better? My path to success is occasionally/often failure

 

[Swanseajack]

To my eyes and monitor the revisted edits are much better. The original looked too orange to me.

 

[Cheffievrs]

I agree that the first image appears to be a little warm. Robin, just because Apple announced they will no longer work on aperture doesn't mean it will stop working.. Keep using it.

 

[BillN_33]

^ Closer to the original RAW file.

@gramps @BillN_33 @Neil B - Better? My path to success is occasionally/often failure

not sure that's correct Robin you post some pretty good images ........... none of us can be 'right" all the time or we would never post and ask for comments/ideas/help

I just would not have bothered with that ........ I can appreciate that you were very pleased to see the birds but sometimes you cannot capture your enthusiast on camera ........ just not possible!

 

[RedRobin]

not sure that's correct Robin you post some pretty good images ........... none of us can be 'right" all the time or we would never post and ask for comments/ideas/help

....Thanks for the encouragement - We all need it occasionally.

I just would not have bothered with that ........ I can appreciate that you were very pleased to see the birds but sometimes you cannot capture your enthusiast on camera ........ just not possible!

....Nail on head! It was my very first encounter seeing a pair courting and it was within my camera reach, just about. I had to give it a go.

One day I hope to get a better shot of courting Grebes.

 

[RedRobin]

I agree that the first image appears to be a little warm. Robin, just because Apple announced they will no longer work on aperture doesn't mean it will stop working.. Keep using it.

....I still have Aperture 3.6 installed but I am finding some features in Capture One Pro 8 which I much prefer and Apple's decision gives me, and many many others, no confidence in being able to use Aperture in a future Mac OS. So I might as well start learning a new RAW editor sooner rather than later.

 

[gramps]

@gramps - Better? My path to success is occasionally/often failure

Looks much more natural colour to me Robin, not the best for focus/clarity but I can fully understand why you took it - good record shot of some of this birds behaviour