This black Phoebe image was taken in southwestern Washington state had a wetland just north of Portlandia. Although I believe that Allen Brooks posted a similar image, according to the Sibley guide, both images were out of range. I believe Southern Oregon is the posted northern boundary. This was taken from my car hand holding my 400 plus 2X tell extender from the driver seat looking over through the open passenger seat window. Ouch!
What technical feedback would you like if any?
What artistic feedback would you like if any?
Pertinent technical details or techniques: iso 1000, 400 plus 2X extender, f5.6, 2500th, A7R4, 10% of full frame
(If backgrounds have been removed, etc. please be honest with your techniques to help others learn)
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Very impressive at 10% of the full frame!! My usual instinct would be to move the bird a little closer to the center, but the green leaves provide a good balance. I would try to reduce the highlights on the lichen, if possible. (Maybe two conversions?) I have read that many birds are extending their ranges north, with global warming.
Hi David,
I like the curved perch and the lichen even though much of it is blown out. I like the overall composition with subject well placed in the frame. While impressive for a 90% crop, the hit to image quality is noticeable in the larger size.
I agree that the highlights are a little blown on the lichen. I tried to repair that with multiple passes of the darkening brush but it got to the point where the color was being affected and I just stopped. I think the light on the bird is fine. With respect to image quality, I am handicapped by using my laptop for processing. My desktop got fried by a power surge several days ago.
Nice pose and good detail. Many options for processing-one I could see would be trying to bring out some of the shadow detail on the wing, crop away the green on the left and see if the background could be darkened more to let the phoebe stand out.
I’ve been seeing phoebe’s in the north Willamette Valley for years and I think the books are a bit outdated as the species seems to be moving north as is quite plentiful.
I had pretty much given up using the burn tool, as the effect was to simply make the image grayer. I recently came across a Youtube tutorial on dodging and burning with the following steps: 1)New layer; 2)Shift-F5 and fill with 50% gray; 3)Blend mode-Soft Light; 4) Command or Control “O”. You can shift between burn and dodge by pressing the option or alt button. I found this works pretty well.
The technique you described is FAR better than the dodge/burn tool in PS. You do NOT need to fill with 50% gray. You do need to use either Soft Light or Overlay as the blending mode. Not sure what you mean by Command or Control “O”. That will try to open an image. Use the Brush tool set at about 20% opacity. Paint with Black to Burn, Paint with White to dodge.
Amazing how many different ways to do the same thing in PS. This was just something I saw on youtube and it works for me. I did make a couple of mistakes: just type “O” to bring up the dodge/burn tool and I forgot to mention setting the opacity low 15-20%. I’ll have to try your method.
Nice shot David. Pretty impressive for hh at 800mm out a car window and cropped to 10%. I like the extra room on left side. There was a black Phoebe through our area just south of Vancouver BC a few days ago. Things are happening I guess.
Well, I tried a version from both Allen and Keith and it did not work however here is another method which I cannot remember remember what I did but it worked.
Nice job, Particularly for the crop and the dynamic range you had to deal with. The Lichen looks rather over-darkened in the final image to my eye. and there are total black areas behind it. I think I prefer it being a bit blown.
I think we saw one of these in that same location last year. Sorry to hear about your desktop-Ouch! I hope it didn’t get any of your storage drives.
A stunning shot and beautifully composed but I think it could be improved to even a higher standard with just a few tweaks. The catch light in the eye and feather detail are stand - outs for sure. I love also the inclusion of the spider web, it just adds a little something really unique. It’s really the twigs and branches to the left that distract the most and pretty simply to tone down in PS, I’m thinking. To shoot this from the car window is quite some achievement, very well done David.
