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Archive 2015 · Some birdies

  
 
ben egbert
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Some birdies


Went out today to find local birds. Not easy in Utah compared to my old home in Washington along the Pacific flyway.

Seagulls are good BIF practice subjects, but my ISO was too high. The Killdeer were wading in these puddles and after getting close in my pickup and waiting, they returned.

Any suggestion on processing, composition etc. Just getting back into bird photography and feel a bit rusty.





Killdeer 1







Killdeer 2







Seagull wading.







Seagull flying.




Aug 19, 2015 at 04:59 PM
georgetd
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · Some birdies


#1 I really like. Excellent pose, good feathers, nice color. Processing is good, I don't think you *need* to change anything. You could try: reducing the red/orange color of the oof region up top. Removing some of the oof spots under the belly of the bird. Increasing the contrast/sharpening the legs.

#3 seems like the feathers are maybe a little over exposed

#4, I'm not digging the color of the sky, looks like a smoggy day. You also have a spec in the lower left that could stand to be removed.



Aug 19, 2015 at 05:52 PM
ben egbert
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · Some birdies


georgetd wrote:
#1 I really like. Excellent pose, good feathers, nice color. Processing is good, I don't think you *need* to change anything. You could try: reducing the red/orange color of the oof region up top. Removing some of the oof spots under the belly of the bird. Increasing the contrast/sharpening the legs.

#3 seems like the feathers are maybe a little over exposed

#4, I'm not digging the color of the sky, looks like a smoggy day. You also have a spec in the lower left that could stand to be removed.


Thanks for the comments, I have worked the OOF areas some, maybe need to revist. The sky is really smokey right now and this is from California and Idaho fires while I am in Utah.



Aug 19, 2015 at 06:38 PM
sbeme
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · Some birdies


Ben,
Glad you are re-visiting the birds! I have less experience with the smaller birds and the greater challenge it entails. Spoiled by access to and size of so many species when in Florida.
1. Nice pose, reflection. Feels like there was a bit of movement in the feathers on the back. Looks a bit soft. Sharper around the eye, but I wonder if that is your processing.
2. Another nice pose. Good job with exposure/highlights. Still maybe a bit soft? Or is it the nature of the birds feathers?
3. Nice pose. I kinda want the head in the reflection. Looks like it is missing some detail in the whites of the chest. At least as a downsized jpeg.
4. Small BIF. Pretty good!.

Scott



Aug 19, 2015 at 07:12 PM
ben egbert
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · Some birdies


sbeme wrote:
Ben,
Glad you are re-visiting the birds! I have less experience with the smaller birds and the greater challenge it entails. Spoiled by access to and size of so many species when in Florida.
1. Nice pose, reflection. Feels like there was a bit of movement in the feathers on the back. Looks a bit soft. Sharper around the eye, but I wonder if that is your processing.
2. Another nice pose. Good job with exposure/highlights. Still maybe a bit soft? Or is it the nature of the birds feathers?
3. Nice pose. I kinda want the head in the reflection. Looks like it
...Show more

Thanks Scott. I am wondering if my 8 YO 1.4 extender is hurting a bit. I had some shots from another day without it that seemed sharper. But these birds were not close enough for 400mm.

The processing is pretty mild compared to my landscapes, and I have really toned them down recently as well. I do almost everything in ACR. In photoshop I do some background blur, spot removal and final sharpening.




Aug 19, 2015 at 07:30 PM
sbeme
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · Some birdies


As you know, I do most of my processing in LR. I generally run a brush over the feathers, set to inc sharpness, clarity and a tad of contrast.
Clarity in LR is similar to the mid-tone contrast bump Karen often suggests, using USM 10-20/50/0 and adjusting opacity, watching highlights. You might apply to the birds in PS and mask out the background.

Scott



Aug 19, 2015 at 07:40 PM
ben egbert
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · Some birdies


sbeme wrote:
As you know, I do most of my processing in LR. I generally run a brush over the feathers, set to inc sharpness, clarity and a tad of contrast.
Clarity in LR is similar to the mid-tone contrast bump Karen often suggests, using USM 10-20/50/0 and adjusting opacity, watching highlights. You might apply to the birds in PS and mask out the background.

Scott


I have a touch of clarity in my ACR and I use a 12,50,0 USM as part of my final sharpening. ACR also has haze which might do something similar. I am working out the 5DS-R work flow and learning a bunch of new stuff. I have never done much selective sharpening other than to mask some areas like sky or water.



Aug 19, 2015 at 08:27 PM
ben egbert
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · Some birdies


Another try on the first one with more contrast and sharpening on the bird. I also cleaned up some spots and worked to soften the upper background.

At 100%, there is good feather detail so I think it has to do with the nature of the feathers.









Aug 19, 2015 at 08:48 PM
georgetd
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · Some birdies


Everything looks improved. Better detail in the feathers and legs. No dust spots.

I might take a little off the right hand side, to get it closer to the original crop. The part you added at the top I think helps with the OOF portion. But, I still want the bird to be a little more off center, so that it's looking into the frame.



Aug 19, 2015 at 08:57 PM
beavens
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p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · Some birdies


I'd like to see you find a middle ground for #1 from the OP and the rework. Looks pushed a bit too much for me.

Liking #3 the more for some reason, but there are some hotspots that need to be addressed. There is something about the vertical crop combined with the legs that really works for me.

Not feeling the crop for #4 - I think the bird needs some neg space to fly into, especially with nothing else in the scene.

Off to a good start!

Jeff



Aug 20, 2015 at 09:39 AM
ben egbert
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p.1 #11 · p.1 #11 · Some birdies


georgetd wrote:
Everything looks improved. Better detail in the feathers and legs. No dust spots.

I might take a little off the right hand side, to get it closer to the original crop. The part you added at the top I think helps with the OOF portion. But, I still want the bird to be a little more off center, so that it's looking into the frame.


Same crop, I just posted a smaller size, the first is actually larger than I am supposed to post. I think I hit 900 horizontal rather than 900 vertical in the downsize action.

I did work the image from scratch however and so I did the top again and got a different rendering. It was not an easy area to blur, for some reason my usual oof softening tricks did not work well.



Aug 20, 2015 at 10:17 AM
ben egbert
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p.1 #12 · p.1 #12 · Some birdies


beavens wrote:
I'd like to see you find a middle ground for #1 from the OP and the rework. Looks pushed a bit too much for me.

Liking #3 the more for some reason, but there are some hotspots that need to be addressed. There is something about the vertical crop combined with the legs that really works for me.

Not feeling the crop for #4 - I think the bird needs some neg space to fly into, especially with nothing else in the scene.

Off to a good start!

Jeff


Will give 1 another try, I need practice masking the bird anyway. 3 is not blown, but the sun was directly on the white feathers so no detail. I agree on 3, but that is not a keeper shot, just a BIF example.

I drove the entire east side of a 30 mile long lake and found all the access points (not many).

I saw some Osprey and even got some images but they were too far away. Last week I saw some avocets flying, and this lake has pelicans and GBH but I did not see any.

Bear River wild live sanctuary is about 100 miles north and is a very good place. But of course spring is better to get the mating colors.



Aug 20, 2015 at 10:23 AM
ben egbert
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p.1 #13 · p.1 #13 · Some birdies


One more try on the first one. Less sharpening, more work on the OOF area and a different tighter crop.







Aug 20, 2015 at 10:58 AM
lighthound
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p.1 #14 · p.1 #14 · Some birdies


I'm glad you picked #1 image to show your edits. This is my favorite out of this set. All of them look pretty damn good to me, however I do see the some of the issues Scott pointed out.

In #3 image I have to say I think you did a great job on capturing those difficult bright white feathers. I can see you have just a sliver of detail and that it's not blown. Should be an easy brush stroke or two with the highlight tool and you will easily have enough detail there. Much better than my recent white fur mess I've been working on.

I really like your last edit here. The slightly off center crop looks great. It doesn't look over worked and you pulled lots of goodness out of him. Love that reflection.

Question, were all of these handheld while in your truck? Or do you have a window mount or something?

I sooooooo want that lens.

Dave



Aug 20, 2015 at 12:34 PM
ben egbert
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p.1 #15 · p.1 #15 · Some birdies


lighthound wrote:
I'm glad you picked #1 image to show your edits. This is my favorite out of this set. All of them look pretty damn good to me, however I do see the some of the issues Scott pointed out.

In #3 image I have to say I think you did a great job on capturing those difficult bright white feathers. I can see you have just a sliver of detail and that it's not blown. Should be an easy brush stroke or two with the highlight tool and you will easily have enough detail there. Much better than my recent
...Show more

All were hand held while setting in the drivers seat. I was not pushing hard here. I have my action presets (C3 on the knob) at ISO800. This way I can grab the camera and get a shot and know I have enough shutter speed. I got the BIF that way.

When I have a fixed situation, I adjust the ISO down to ISO200 if the shutter speed allows.

I have a tripod gimbol head devise called a Wimberly sidekick. I use this when I have a fixed location and plenty of time. But I have found you almost always need a fairly high shutter speed because birds move so fast.

For example catching a yellow headed blackbird when it is singing requires over 1/250 to freeze the beak even when hardly any other part is moving.

Using the vehicle as a blind beats setting up a tripod in plain sight. Distance is the single biggest enemy of good bird photography. Long lenses have diminishing returns because of the intervening atmosphere.





Aug 20, 2015 at 12:47 PM
lylejk
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p.1 #16 · p.1 #16 · Some birdies


Hope you don't mind a little play at de-emphasizing the mids Ben.




Aug 20, 2015 at 01:07 PM
ben egbert
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p.1 #17 · p.1 #17 · Some birdies


lylejk wrote:
Hope you don't mind a little play at de-emphasizing the mids Ben.

http://imageshack.com/a/img537/7388/YLXZzf.jpg


Not at all. glad to have it.



Aug 20, 2015 at 02:28 PM
georgetd
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p.1 #18 · p.1 #18 · Some birdies


I really like your most recent version Ben, great work.


Aug 20, 2015 at 04:45 PM





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