The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
Costa Rica has about 30 beautifully-coloured tanagers that are happy to pose at the various seed feeders put out for them.
I love the variety of mosses, lichens, vines, and leaves crawling over most surfaces in the rainforest, although the light is often quite poor under the canopy.
The broken limb adds some interest here, although the bird is not particularly compelling.
Specific Feedback
comments and suggestions welcome
Technical Details
Sony A1
200-600 @ 600mm
Software: Adobe Photoshop 25.12 (Windows)
Date Taken: 2023-01-26 15:15:03
Exposure Time: 1/2500 sec
F Number: f/6.3
ISO Speed Ratings: ISO 12800
Exposure Program: Manual
Metering Mode: matrix
Critique Template
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I know these guys are really brilliant, Sandy, but I think you need to back off on the saturation on this one. You’ve started losing feather detail on the head, shoulder and root of the tail where the reds are brightest. I love the pose and it chose a nice perch as well.
I agree with Dennis about the saturation. I would go back to the RAW photo and drop the saturation of the reds down and see how it looks. You may need to add a little bit of microcontrast to recover that feather detail. A nice comp and pose is fantastic…Jim
It slightly improved the image, but the reds overwhelmed the Sony sensor. Details in the less saturated areas are very nice. The head is still very saturated and lost detail when compared to the original. I’ll have to do some research on this. Its very close to ideal and wow, that bird is vibrant…Jim
I downloaded your photo of Mr. Tanager and did the following:
1. Levels revealed clipping in the 3 color channels with reds going way off the scale. I did individual curves adjustments for each channel reducing the curves slope at the highlight region for eavh color.
2. I then reduced the saturation in in the red and green channels. Blues seemed to take care of itself.
3. I then bumped up microcontrast followed with a slight bump up in Brightness & Contrast.
The colors are now within the color gamut of my Eizo monitor and detail has appeared on places that were obscured by the vibrant red. Hope this works for you…Jim
Jim - thanks for taking the time to re-work this!
Your result is excellent, although nowhere near as red as the bird really is.
I think you’re right, that the reds simply overwhelmed the sensor! I’ll remember that with bright reds in the future.
