Birds 2012

[mvanrheenen]

Mark - the bokeh in my shots is not planned. There usually isn't time.

I know that feeling. You usually have just a few seconds to shoot like mad before the bird decides to leave. That's why I have such a lot of respect for the photographers who do pull off great compositions, like yours!

You said the Zebra Finch was overexposed and you couldn't do anything about it.

Well, maybe I overreacted a little, but I couldn't correct it enough without the background going dark on me. My PP skills aren't that good yet, especially with LR, which I just got. I always shoot in RAW and you're right that you can correct a LOT of flaws with it. Great technology!

Thanks for your comments.

Mark

[Birma]

Great selection of bird shots - keep them coming

[Dr. Harout]

More great shots from Dennis and Mark. I agree with Birma, keep them coming guys.

[Argonaut]

Mark said, "My PP skills aren't that good yet, especially with LR, which I just got."

In the Develop Module there is a paintbrush near the top of the right panel. Click on it and a drop-down menu appears with a lot of sliders for Exposure, Highlights, etc etc. Move the slider for Exposure to -20 or -30, adjust the size of the brush so that you can "paint" inside the zebra finch, and paint away. You'll see the finch darken slightly. If the effect is not exactly what you want, then go back to the slider and move it in the direction you want - you'll see the image change accordingly.

I'm sure you can see the potential here. Adjusting the overall photo is usually good enough, but for those tough ones, use the paintbrush for local adjustments.

Argonaut

[mvanrheenen]

Mark said, "My PP skills aren't that good yet, especially with LR, which I just got."

In the Develop Module there is a paintbrush near the top of the right panel. Click on it and a drop-down menu appears with a lot of sliders for Exposure, Highlights, etc etc. Move the slider for Exposure to -20 or -30, adjust the size of the brush so that you can "paint" inside the zebra finch, and paint away. You'll see the finch darken slightly. If the effect is not exactly what you want, then go back to the slider and move it in the direction you want - you'll see the image change accordingly.

I'm sure you can see the potential here. Adjusting the overall photo is usually good enough, but for those tough ones, use the paintbrush for local adjustments.

Argonaut

That's some really valuable advice Argonaut. Thank you very much! I'll try it as soon as I have a few minutes.

Mark

[aster]

Argonaut, Dennis and Mark;

All are mesmerising... I've been visiting the thread a couple of times already to take them all in. Each species is nicely taken and presented in their own environments.

Thank you all for making a wonderful series of birds. : )


Yildiz

ps. No doubt I'll be visiting this page many times more during the day.

[mvanrheenen]

Argonaut, I really feel the need to thank you very much for the tip you gave about the brush in LR!

I reprocessed the Zebra Finch shot and it's as I want it now.

Before


After

[DennisG]

Mark said, "My PP skills aren't that good yet, especially with LR, which I just got."

In the Develop Module there is a paintbrush near the top of the right panel. Click on it and a drop-down menu appears with a lot of sliders for Exposure, Highlights, etc etc. Move the slider for Exposure to -20 or -30, adjust the size of the brush so that you can "paint" inside the zebra finch, and paint away. You'll see the finch darken slightly. If the effect is not exactly what you want, then go back to the slider and move it in the direction you want - you'll see the image change accordingly.

I'm sure you can see the potential here. Adjusting the overall photo is usually good enough, but for those tough ones, use the paintbrush for local adjustments.

Argonaut

Argonaout, why did u bring that up, now i have to go over all my pictures again :/

Enough with the joking that was some rely good advise, i haven't tried the brush sens i did not know what to do with it and had more or less forgotten about it, now i have some work to do

and keep all the nice bird shoots coming they all give me inspiration )

[Argonaut]

Mark: Bingo! That one turned out nicely. Back in the good old days we referred to the "latent image" - what was on the film after exposure but before development. I think in the era of digital photography there are a lot of latent images out there that tools like LR and Photoshop can reveal.

[mvanrheenen]

Thanks Argonaut and Dennis, I know the feeling. I've been browsing through the archives myself

While doing a bit of gardening this morning I wanted to remove 2 bushes in front of the house. The missus and I don't like them, so I was planning to remove both, until I found this in one of them. It scared the sh*t out of me, in a good way though



As you can imagine, I left the bush standing

Mark

[aa los banos]

evenin guys! as always, great selection of images here


my share.....



grebe

[mvanrheenen]

Great addition to the thread aa! Grebes are lovely birds.

[aster]

Hi Mark, : )

Your Zebra Finch is definitely regained some colour after the adjustments. Good of Argonaut to point out a very useful feature of the editing software.

I think your 'bushman' is very startilingly beautiful. Would that be a parent or a jevunile that we see the eye and bills of?
Very nice find if you ask me. : ) An exciting wait for the new action awaits you, I think.


Hi AA, : )

Very gentle Grebe there. Certainly is gliding in the mirror-like water surface.


Thanks for sharing all,

Yildiz

[mvanrheenen]

Hi Mark, : )

Your Zebra Finch is definitely regained some colour after the adjustments. Good of Argonaut to point out a very useful feature of the editing software.

I think your 'bushman' is very startilingly beautiful. Would that be a parent or a jevunile that we see the eye and bills of?
Very nice find if you ask me. : ) An exciting wait for the new action awaits you, I think.

Hi Yildiz,

That would be a female Common Blackbird (Turdus merula) which is waiting for her eggs to hatch

Mark

[aster]

Hi Mark, : )

Your Zebra Finch is definitely regained some colour after the adjustments. Good of Argonaut to point out a very useful feature of the editing software.

I think your 'bushman' is very startilingly beautiful. Would that be a parent or a jevunile that we see the eye and bills of?
Very nice find if you ask me. : ) An exciting wait for the new action awaits you, I think.

Hi Yildiz,

That would be a female Common Blackbird (Turdus merula) which is waiting for her eggs to hatch

Mark

OK. Your 'bushlady' then.

Thanks for clarifying. I hope all babies survive and you find many opportunities to photograph their growth which should be exciting and a contribution to nature's history. : ))


Yildiz