Red Kite on a perch

fernface

fernface

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Brian
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Took this against a truly awful sky and it is about a 60 percent crop. Had to do a lot of PP (probaly not correctly), still learning. Appreciate any comments, even if it is bin it:D

Thanks for looking:)

 
You manged to capture it quite well considering the bad light conditions.
 
A lovely pose and composition Brian, there seems to be something not quite right with the colour and feather detail, I'm not good enough to see what it is though, possibly to do with the big crop and lighting conditions etc. Deff not bin it though, too good for that.
Have you got your lens sorted yet, hope so (y)
 
Trev4 said:
A lovely pose and composition Brian, there seems to be something not quite right with the colour and feather detail, I'm not good enough to see what it is though, possibly to do with the big crop and lighting conditions etc. Deff not bin it though, too good for that.
Have you got your lens sorted yet, hope so (y)
Click to expand...

Thanks Trev. Agree about colour, tried to increase saturation but it still did not look right. Was hoping someone might suggest a way, might still happen i guess.

As regards lens, yes, following Martyns advice i did not go for a replacement 80-400, got a 300mm F4 plus 1.4 converter compliments of the insurance. Didnt have the converter on for this shot as i was concentrating on getting shots of the birds coming down to feed, so 300mm was spot on. When i saw this bird perch i had to grab the camera tripod and all and just shoot. Will be looking out for this shot again though:D
 
Richard Peters said:
Very impressed you managed to get close to one that was perched, usually they are off before you can get within 100 yards lol
Click to expand...

Not close, it was at the top of a 40ft tree about 20yds away!!:D
 
PP isnt my best subject Brian, so I hope you dont mind, I had a little play with your shot. If your not happy, please say so and I'll take it off, no problem and no offence. I could only work on the one you posted and mine isnt right by a long way. Anway, see what you think.

4650267272_2e39bd0569_b.jpg
 
Yep that looks a bit better Trev, can you remember what you did:D. Cos i never can!!!
 
fernface said:
Yep that looks a bit better Trev, can you remember what you did:D. Cos i never can!!!
Click to expand...

Thanks Brian, but as I said its far from right.
All I did was to change the levels in adjustments using the Auto function in CS4, then take the center slider down to 1.76.
Reduce the saturation to -6, increase the vibrance to +30
Flatten the layers.
Open a duplicate layer and run it through the High Pass filter using a radius of 3.0 pixels, merge the layers using 'overlay' and 80% fill.
Flatten the layer and save.

Hope this helps. There is no doubt a better and easier way, but thats the way I approached it.

Take care mate (y)
 
fernface said:
As regards lens, yes, following Martyns advice i did not go for a replacement 80-400, got a 300mm F4 plus 1.4 converter compliments of the insurance. Didnt have the converter on for this shot as i was concentrating on getting shots of the birds coming down to feed, so 300mm was spot on. When i saw this bird perch i had to grab the camera tripod and all and just shoot. Will be looking out for this shot again though:D
Click to expand...

And look how sharp it is, the edit works well ... shooting against a grey sky is never going to get as good a shot as against a blue sky, that is the way it is.
 
kaz10 said:
Hi Brian I think it was probably under exposed especially as you were shooting up to the sky,you need to over exposure your shots in this situation,good luck for next time
Click to expand...

Thanks Karen. Actually what happened was i had camera set up for shooting the birds about 0-2ft off the ground. Saw this one perched and just grabbed camera-tripod and all- and just made the shots. Next time.....:D
 
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