What changed: Selected the bg in ACR, then masked with broad-feathered brush the area broadly around the bird’s head. The played with exposure sliders to taste
Added after receiving feedback from the community.
The photographer is looking for thoughtful feedback on the image as a whole, especially around the areas noted below.
Feedback Focus: Artistic + Technical
About This Image
… or BBOBB… BlueBird on BirdBath. Of course spin off of Bird on a Stick…
After enjoying @Diane_Miller 's wonderful images of the two broods of baby West Bluebirds, I was quite excited when this guy showed up at the bird bath. I had never seen one in my backyard before. I managed just a handful of frames, and he was gone. Have not seen one since. but I was very happy to add him to my list. And thanks Diane for the inspiration!
Feedback Requested
Nothing special here; actually pretty static and boring pic. But at least the mouth is open, I believe from taking a few sips of water.
Mostly interested in processing and how everything looks. Any suggestions for improvement?
In full disclosure, I did remove a pole that lined the left edge as well as some vegetation in the LRC. Cloned out a few white hot spots in the bird bath as well. One of the few pics I have where the entirety of the bird is in focus!
As always, your comments and feedback are greatly appreciated!
Technical Details
Camera: NIKON Z 8
Lens: TAMRON 150-500mm F/5-6.7 Di III VC VXD A057Z
Focal length: 481mm
Shutter speed: 1/500s
Aperture: f/6.7
ISO: 3600
OK, Lon – I think you’re hooked!! This looks great – pose, detail, colors, BG – all excellent!
These guys won’t come to feeders – unless you offer live mealworms. (And that’s one to run by “the kitchen staff” as you’ll be keeping them in the fridge.) But they LOVE birdbaths! They are particular about cleanliness, though. If ours gets too gross they sit on a nearby perch and glare at us. And if you have a secluded spot where they won’t see foot traffic, but up a bluebird house and you’ll probably get a renter.
This looks very good, Lon. Judging by the looks, I think this is an adult male and he’s raised a brood or three this summer. Once he finishes molting, the winter plumage is just gorgeous, so hopefully he’ll come back. Mealworms can work, though when we were doing it the youngsters had to show the adults they were good. They;re actually pretty clean little critters. They sell dried ones for chickens, but our bluebirds (and all the other wild birds) totally ignored them when I tried some.
As far as the image goes, the only thing I might change it to add a little light behind the beak to make it stand out from the background a bit more.
@Dennis_Plank , how neat about the kids showing the adults the worms are good! And the adults have been feeding the poor helpless kids every sort of worm (and every other kind of bug) for weeks. I’ve read that they will feed the most nutritious bugs to the kids and eat the less desirable ones themselves. Spiders are a special delicacy.
I did just that. Ya know, one of the great things about getting feedback here on NPN, is the challenge of figuring out ways to implement the suggested feedback. In this case, I thought what a great processing challenge, and how might I go about accomplishing that. Well, I ended up back in ACR, selected the background, but then masked out with a wide-feathered brush only the area around the head I wanted to increase luminosity. I like painting with big, soft brushes to make any changes subtle. I hope the change works ok.
Can’t say I’d eat mealworms… but that’s just me… LOL
Very nicely done on the repost, Lon. I’d probably have taken a similar approach, though I work in LR rather than ACR, but they amount to the same thing. Sometimes these days I’ll use the object selection which seems to be very good about getting fine detail and then invert it. to get the background.
Yeah, as you know the processing engine, which I’m pretty sure would include the masking features, are the same thing in LR and ACR. I’ve been finding the “select subject” to be fantastic! It has been working especially well with the hummer images because the bg is so easily defined (blurry!)
On many of the posted images, I’ve selected the subject/bird made some adjustments, then duplicate/invert for the background to brighten/darken, etc. Like I mentioned, I’m quite blown away with the tools these days.
Follow on note on the bird. I’m not sure how far north of you I am, but I took some shots of a male Bluebird a couple of days ago and it’s in almost exactly the same stage of its molt to winter plumage.
interesting Dennis. I’m due east of San Francisco by about 40min as the crow flies. Days are a little longer and hotter than your area, although I certainly don’t consider my area desert…
I was hoping to render the colors/sat naturally, although I don’t have anything to go by. Glad the colors are close enough that you would compare to a bluebird you just photographed. cool, and thanks!
Hi Lon. Nice close look at the bluebird and as birdbaths go, I like this one-seems quite natural. I like the revision in terms of the light behind the head. This is purely a matter of taste, but for me, the background green seems too intense. I played around with the image in PS and warming it up seemed to help the background and maybe even the bird.
P.S. I’ve found that the bluebirds in our neighborhood seem to like the suet I put out in the fall and winter.
Hi Lon, I’m late to the party on this but I really like the color rendition on this bluebird. I’m not sure how the western variety exactly compares to our eastern birds but this looks great. Nice job on the revision. Are you tempted to go whole hog and do a full natural-looking water feature like Dennis has? I’ve thought about it.
