Into the morning light - With Repost

Image Description

A very cold early morning at Bosque del Apache about 30 minutes after sunrise

Type of Critique Requested

  • Aesthetic: Feedback on the overall visual appeal of the image, including its color, lighting, cropping, and composition.

  • Conceptual: Feedback on the message and story conveyed by the image.

  • Technical: Feedback on the technical aspects of the image, such as exposure, color, focus and reproduction of colors and details, post-processing, and print quality.

Specific Feedback and Self-Critique

Generally pleased with this image except there should be more space in front of the crane. I would also prefer more light on the beak.

Technical Details

Nikon Z6ii
ISO 800
f6.3
1/1250 sec
Sigma 150-600mm
shot at 600mm
Trip with gimbal head

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Hello, welcome to NPN! This is a great place to share and learn. I can see why you are pleased with this…I love the action you caught here and the magical light. I like the composition and am focused on the beautiful light so…I think it helps that the space at the front and rear of the bird is balanced. I do wish there was light on the beak as it actually looks like the beak is missing. I am not an expert at Lightroom so am not sure what to suggest. Do you use post-processing software? There are some real experts in our group…someone may have some suggestions for you.

I hope you find NPN as helpful and inspiring as I do! Keep posting and add your critiques as well.

Hello, Daniel, and welcome.
I do like the mood of the image a lot, as well as the action for that matter - which make for a great starting point.
On my screen the image looks rather grainy, maybe some noise reduction could fix that. Also, there’s a strange light area between the head and the wing - did you do any subject selection on post processing? This may have included that particular spot.
As to your wishing the bill to be lighter, you may (locally) lift shadows a bit and see what that brings.
Looking forward to more !
Cheers
Hans

@Daniel_Mulkey - Welcome to NPN. Thanks for sharing your image from the Bosque. I live in Albuquerque, and have been photographing at that very special refuge for more than 20 years now. Always something fun there.

Your image is very striking with a lot of drama.

Technical: There is some noise showing especially in the back wing. It’s not much, but small things can make a nice difference. The processing has left a light area between the head and the back wing that shows the background darkening missed in that area. I’m guessing the background was darkened a lot based on the presented image. The light on the crane would be something I’d expect there shortly after sunrise.

Aesthetic: I think the contrast is more than I’d care to see. The darkened background is certainly dramatic, but pushed to the point that it doesn’t feel natural. That darkening is also a possible cause for the loss of clear separation for the beak if the mask wasn’t accurate for the subject. We don’t know what processing software you used as it wasn’t mentioned. As you mentioned more room in front would be of benefit. Easy to correct if you were so inclined with content aware cropping in PS.

Thanks Hans and Keith for the helpful critiques. I am very new to LR and PS editing and just finishing course material on both. I will reprocess with your suggestions in mind. I found the photography at Bosque to be very difficult - low light, very dark background, trying to capture the birds in flight. Not to mention how cold it was at 5AM.

Roberta, thanks for the welcome. I am new to editing software except for clicking the auto button. NPN is going to be a great place for me to learn by example. Lots of wonderful images to study!

Hi Daniel and Welcome to NPN! :slight_smile:

This is a terrific image with lots of fun action, I love the low perspective and the low angled early morning sunlight creating the distinct shadow on the underside of the left wing.
The running takeoff was perfectly captured and the takeoff being directly into the morning sun is great!! (The title is well suited. :slight_smile: )
Excellent image overall!

In my very humble opinion:
I agree this needs more canvas on the left and a brighter and more defined beak.
I also think there are a few more things that need some attention like:

  • The area between the neck and the right wing needs to match the rest of the BG in terms of exposure.
  • There is a fair amount of digital noise that can be mitigated to a reasonable degree IMO.
  • The focus on the eye and head are a little soft (as a result of the noise?) (or maybe just artifacts?), not sure.

Note: Any edits are always best done to the original RAW image file rather than a compressed jpeg file like this.
I hope you are shooting in RAW.

I took your image into Ps (Photoshop), copied the original layer, then run that copy through Topaz Denoise AI, I used the Standard mode in Denoise with the strength at about 7 or 8 (just enough to reduce the noise but not so much that it created more artifacts).

Then I created a new layer of the beak using the Polygonal Lasso Tool (I copied and pasted the selection so the beak was on its own layer), then adjusted it with brightness and contrast.

Next, I used the crop tool to add canvas to the left and checked the “Content Aware” box at the top so Ps would fill it in for me. Note: I noticed a few repeating patterns so I used the clone tool at about 50% opacity to remove any repeating patterns and to add clarity to the water highlights.

Then, just for a little clutter removal, I circled some of the stuff in the water with the Lasso tool and then went to Edit>Fill and used content Aware to remove those.

And finally, since the eye was a little soft, I used a very small brush of 2 or 3 pixels in diameter while using the Smudge tool and simply pushed a few pixels around to make it look like the eye was nice a sharp (well…reasonably sharp).

I just read in your responses that you have limited experience in Ps and Lr so that helps us to know that.
Instructions for each of the tasks above can be found on YouTube but I/we would be happy to help further if you get stuck or need clarification on anything.

Below is a screenshot showing the layers I used in Ps, I hope that helps!

The example edit below is just to demonstrate what can be done in Ps (and other programs).

I’m sure I missed something in the explanation, I usually do. :frowning:

Some of this will seem intimidating but the best way to reduce or eliminate that is to watch pertinent videos closely and spend as much time with Ps as you can.
Lr is great for color adjustments and masking (as well as a few other things), but Ps is the real workhorse IMHO>

Again, great capture! :slight_smile:

Thank so much for the editing advice. Just what I need.

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My Pleasure! :+1:

Type of Critique Requested

  • Technical: Feedback on the technical aspects of the image, such as exposure, color, focus and reproduction of colors and details, post-processing, and print quality.

Specific Feedback and Self-Critique

I re-edited this photo after suggestions from members. I used a LR mask on the beak and Topaz deniose.

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@Daniel_Mulkey - I merged your repost into your original topic and added to the title “With Repost”.

It is best to edit your existing topic (use the little pencil icon to edit) and add your reworked image. It makes it much easier for folks to see and compare the results. Thx.

I think your repost looks better, but there is still the area between the head and the rear wing where the background doesn’t match.

Yes, I see that now - will work on it. Just the type of feedback I am looking for.

1 Like