What technical feedback would you like if any?
Unfortunately, the bird is still backlight and the background is fairly bright. I think it is better than the other Juvenile Cooper’s from before. Hopefully. he/she will come through later in the afternoon when the light will be better. I love birding from a chair in my back patio. Keeping my social distancing.
What artistic feedback would you like if any?
Pertinent technical details or techniques:
(If backgrounds have been removed, etc. please be honest with your techniques to help others learn)Canon 7Dll, Sigma 150-600, 244mm, ISO 2500, 1/4000sec,[Set for Hummingbirds],F/6.3.
LR CC, PS, Topaz Denoise AI.
All comments appreciated
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Great photo of the Cooper Charlie. I do agree that the background is a bit bright, however, I am not experienced enough to comment on the best way to remedy that beyond selecting the background and apply various blurring, dodging and selective color techniques. I still am amazed at the detail you have captured in the bird. Really wonderful.
Thanks. I am struggling with that.
This worked out rather well, Charlie. The background doesn’t look at all objectionable to me. I like the pose and the tree works nicely as a perch. If you’re shooting into the light, and you have an external flash (though the built-in one will work to some extent) turn it on and set it at -2 EV exposure compensation as a start. You might have to move up to -1 or even higher, but that will put more light on the bird and perch without appreciably increasing the light on the background. I haven’t really played with it for backlight situations, but I know it works from what I’ve seen others do.
Good idea. Was looking for Hummers and they were down low when the hawk came in and perched. I will try with the flash. Thanks.
These birds are always a treat to see and photograph. But there are a few things that bother me in this image.
First, I can’t understand the light here.There’s a bit of edge lighting showing on the top of the bill and the forehead just above it, but the breast and belly look as if they have direct frontal lighting. I also have trouble making sense of the shadows on the hawk compared to the branch.
Second, it appears there’s been some noise reduction applied, but not evenly. The wings appear “melted” to some degree.
Finally, there a hard edge near the top that might have come from some kind of election or masking that is a distortion, especially in the larger view.
I really like this Charlie, the lighting looks good to me. My first impression was that it must have been a wide focal length (its actually kind of intermediate with the crop sensor). I like the horizontal lines of both bird and branch. I can see some of the imperfections that may be due to noise reduction and/or masking when I zoom in all the way that Rich mentioned. So you could rework that part, but I do think it’s a really nice image overall.
Using Topaz denoise , new for me, and already see some problems with the background. Thanks , i will continue to work on it.
Composition wise I like it a lot, the same for species and perch. It looks like you lightened the shadows quite a bit, but I can’t tell. I do not know the bird very well, but the color looks a little orange to me. Curious about the result of your rework !
Cheers, Hans
Thanks. I think I really over processed it . Your right, it is too orange. I redid it with just some basic adjustments with no change in color and only a small amount of sharpening. Wee what you think.
Charlie: The repost is a vast improvement over the original. Much more natural looking. Topaz Denoise AI didn’t do you any favors at all on the first version. I’ve seen that over and over with any backgrounds that aren’t just smooth sky or something like that. Seems as though that product has received a lot of hype. It’s fine, but clearly has some major issues as well.
Indeed, this now looks natural and addresses my concerns over the confusing lighting direction. The shadows on the face and breast now support the shadows on the branch.
Very nice job on the repost, Charlie. Nicely done, and I don’t find the background at all distracting.
