The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
My wife and I were having our morning “Coffee and Cocoa” on the back porch yesterday when some Cedar Waxwings came in and perched on an old dead tree trunk that we have propped up to provide perches (our “Swallow Tree” because they favor it). I couldn’t get both of these birds in focus at the same time, though it was close, and they departed while I was adjusting for more depth of field. I decided I’d try to do a composite image to portray them both. Both birds were in the image with the upper bird, but I replaced the bird and perch at the bottom from another frame.
Specific Feedback
I’m ambivalent about this image because there’s no attachment of the perches to the trunk to provide continuity. Unfortunately, the trunk was quite a bit to the left and there was a large out of focus branch on the edge that would have required massive cleanup. Does this still work or should I just stick with individual shots?
Technical Details
Sony A1, FE 200-600 @ 600 mm, hand held, f/6.3, 1/500, iso 2500. Adjusted color temperature and tint slightly in LR for both images, imported to PS where I did noise reduction and created the composite and cropped to 5640x4038. Back to LR where I used the local adjustment brush to just slightly increase the warmth, saturation and sharpness of the two faces and exported the jpeg.
This is one of the very few images where I haven’t separated the bird(s) onto separate layers for different processing than the background, but it just wasn’t necessary here and the feather texture is so fine on this species that enhancing it ruins the effect.
Both images taken yesterday morning at 7:08 AM under cloudy skies.
Hi Dennis, I like this especially when you explain this is how the perches were originally arranged. Just needed a sharper bird on the bottom. Both perches and birds look good to me. A well done composite of a couple of real beauties. Love the waxwings and this frame shows them off well. Nice BG too.
As a composite goes, this one looks terrific. Even though the perches are similar, the poses add some interest. Reminds me a little of Audubon’s approach when he painted a species - he’d show them in different aspects, poses, activities and perches. I wonder if the bg isn’t just a tad dark and if the whole image could use a tiny bit of vibrance. Color me green at your time with these guys. I only ever see them going mental trying to catch bugs on the sides of lakes where I paddle. At least that’s what it looks like they’re doing.
@Kris_Smith they probably are. I used to think of these as strictly fruit eaters, but quite a few years ago now, there was a huge outbreak of tent caterpillars on a preserve where i pulled weeds monthly and all of a sudden there were all kinds of waxwings around, the next time I went there, both the tent caterpillars and the waxwings were gone.
Oh I am jealous you caught these against such a nice background, I seem to only find them high in trees against the sky. I am not sure why, but my original impression was that this was a composite. I think you have two wonderful poses and would prefer to see them separately.
This is a very fine image of a pair of Cedar Waxwings!
If you hadn’t mentioned that this was a composite, I wouldn’t have guessed or thought that it was.
I do appreciate your transparency about the composite, BTW!
It’s obvious to me that these were both shot at nearly the same spot in the same light and very close to the same time.
The fact that the image doesn’t show the trunk where the branches come from doesn’t bother me at all, it’s easy for me to imagine the rest of the scene outside of the frame.
I’ve seen this species in the mountains west of where I live and they are usually in large groups so seeing this pair together seems natural. I’ve seen quite a few images of two or more on the same branch, although most I’ve seen were feeding on berries.
The only thing that I can think of for improvement suggestions is purely subjective and personal preference.
The image seems just a tad washed out, so for me, adding just a little bit of black point in the Yellow, Green and Neutral Channels with a Selective Color Adjustment Layer adds a little color back into the birds and the BG but again, it’s purely a personal preference thing.
BTW, I wanted to take it into Ps and make those adjustments just to see if it would work before making the suggestion and since I already had the example edit, I thought it might be OK to post it? I hope you don’t mind!
The best way to learn about the Selective Color Adjustment Layer is to watch this YouTube instructional video, the guy is a bit high strung but he knows his stuff!
He must be doing something right since he has almost 4.7 Million subscribers.
I’ve learned a lot from his videos.
He can do a much better job at explaining it than I can.
One of the biggest reasons I like using this over Lr or ACR’s HSL panel is the ability to add some degree of white or black point to each individual color independently.
And as the guy in the video explains, you can use different blending modes which dramatically expands the layer adjustment options.
Hope this helps, Dennis, and again, love the image!!
Yes, he is!
Some of his early videos were a little hard to watch but his recent videos are better because has has learned to slow down and be more clear.
I’m just glad that you were able to get something useful out of it.
Some YouTube instructional videos aren’t all that good or very accurate but this guys does know his stuff.
I think this works as posted but I also think that separate images of each would also work. I’m a little ambivalent because the birds don’t appear to have any interaction with each other and to me that makes all the difference. This would work much better if the birds were either looking at each other or if maybe the perches looked a little bit more different. Now , this is not to say it doesn’t work because I think it does to a certain extent but I think if you separated them you’d have two great images that might appear more natural even though you didn’t do anything to make them appear un-natural. Not sure if any of this is making sense or not. I do like the rework by @Merv a lot. It really adds some punch to this image.
Anyway, very creative image and good of you to think of it while you were in the moment. It’s a well done and seamless composite.
Hi Dennis
My first impression was, here is an old married couple and Pop in trouble again. I think I would split the difference between Mervin’s update and your shot on the saturation. Not having LR or PS all the magic cut and past is beyond my setup. The shot look natural and your information on the composition helped me to under the photograph. Nice work.
Peter
