What a wonderful day it is

Geir Andersen · 02-03-2007, 16:51

After getting advice on here, I ended up ordering the Sigma 70-300mm f4-5.6 DG APO Macro. Got the lens day after I ordered it, but the weather's just been miserable in Norway since then and I haven't wanted to take it outside.
Woke up this morning. The sun was shining, birds chirping and it was simply quite beautiful. Had to do some shopping for my mother, and decided to make a real trip of it. Got some shot's I haven't had a chance to look at yet, but on my way home I found this beauty:

This shouldn't be here during wintertime but for some reason it is. I'm not complaining though. Bird seemed to thrive and doing well, and I got a real kick out of it.
I've cropped around the bird, and it's quite a big crop. (From 3888 to 988 or something like that.) I think it's pretty sharp, particularly since it's hand held and I'm really not steady on my hand. Shaking like...

Personally I like this crop, as I think it leaves just enough room for the bird, but I realize I should have set aperture to about 10 or something.

Here's another shot. This one was taken just prior to leaving. Still hand held, but only 190mm and I wasn't so cold yet

.

This looks pretty dang sharp to me, but then.... I'm biased, because I want it to look sharp.

I've done practically nothing i PS on these, only reduced size to fit Pixalo. Did alter the white balance of the cat shot, using a Curves adjustment level. Tried to increase the contrast of the egret, but still not completely comfortable with PS.

C & C always welcome.

Gary Bagshawe · 02-03-2007, 17:03

Loving that 1st shot, could maybe do with a bit of dodging in PS but other than that, very good.

bob · 02-03-2007, 17:07

very good shot of the bird, well done

**Markulous** · 02-03-2007, 17:53

Heron's looking good! Cat wants the top of ears back!

Boofers · 02-03-2007, 18:32

Like the snow texture and the whiskers of course. I think you could have used a 50% grey filled new layer in soft light mode and brushed in the darkened side of the bird alittle with white to lighten the shadow. I've made mistakes before but thought you asked about photoshopping. There's plenty of mistakes to make with it,,I know,,just try again, of course on a copy.

Geir Andersen · 02-03-2007, 19:06

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gary Bagshawe

Loving that 1st shot, could maybe do with a bit of dodging in PS but other than that, very good.

Searched the web to find out what the dodge-tool is, and this is what came out. It really did help on the body, and certainly on the black parts of the reed. Thanks for enlightening me

Quote:

Originally Posted by Markulous

Heron's looking good! Cat wants the top of ears back!

Won't Spock be jealous

Quote:

Originally Posted by Boofers

Like the snow texture and the whiskers of course. I think you could have used a 50% grey filled new layer in soft light mode and brushed in the darkened side of the bird alittle with white to lighten the shadow. I've made mistakes before but thought you asked about photoshopping. There's plenty of mistakes to make with it,,I know,,just try again, of course on a copy.

OK, this is quite a bit beyond my comfort zone at the moment

I'll have to see if I can't find any info on this, and try to implement it on the shot. You're more than welcome to show me the idea though

Thank you all for the kind words. I really enjoy this new lens. Can't wait for the next day of good weather

Charlotte · 02-03-2007, 22:01

Fabulous shot of the bird! Much prefer your original version - nothing wrong with it at all, in my eyes. Your edited version has brought all tones on the bird + reeds into the midtone range, which flattens it a bit + was, IMHO quite unnecessary. Original one shows a good range of tones, with shadow detail perfectly visible on my monitor, + I see no reason to edit the shot at all (don't fix what ain't broke). Love the sparkling snow. Very well done

nichpr · 02-03-2007, 23:01

Shooting a dark object in front of snow while retaining the detail you did in both the snow and the bird is quite an accomplishment. Well done.
The only way you will learn Photoshop is to dive in and try several different tools to see which one works on your particular task.

Shouldn't this bird be down south this time of year - never seen one in the snow!?

- Paul

Geir Andersen · 02-03-2007, 23:19

Quote:

Originally Posted by Charlotte

Fabulous shot of the bird! Much prefer your original version - nothing wrong with it at all, in my eyes. Your edited version has brought all tones on the bird + reeds into the midtone range, which flattens it a bit + was, IMHO quite unnecessary. Original one shows a good range of tones, with shadow detail perfectly visible on my monitor, + I see no reason to edit the shot at all (don't fix what ain't broke). Love the sparkling snow. Very well done

Thank you Charlotte. I totally see what you mean. Didn't realize it until I looked at them side-by-side

, but the bird (and image in general) did lose something with the dodging. Learn-and-go.. I too prefer the original one, as that was the first I saw

Quote:

Originally Posted by nichpr

Shooting a dark object in front of snow while retaining the detail you did in both the snow and the bird is quite an accomplishment. Well done.
The only way you will learn Photoshop is to dive in and try several different tools to see which one works on your particular task.

Shouldn't this bird be down south this time of year - never seen one in the snow!?

- Paul

Thank you to, Paul. Good to know I'm getting better at this

I've been stuck in front of the computer trying to learn as much as I can about PS and PP. Not very good weather here, so it's all good though.

I also thought this bird went south during winter. Never seen one this time of year before. Doing some research online, I found there are reported occasions of herons staying, but never in our area. We usually get anywhere from 1-XX meters of snow every year, so I'm guessing food isn't readily available.

Some more reading confirms it's a migrating bird, but it lays its eggs march-may so I'm guessing it's supposed to be here. Wouldn't like to be the one to have to keep the eggs warm at this time of year...

P-E · 03-03-2007, 00:02

Nice 1st shot

Boofers · 03-03-2007, 01:52

in PS, hold down alt key and click in the layers palette, the new layer icon. option key on a mac. a pop up will ask you if you want to fill with 50% grey, click the box and select softlight from the mode select box. Then paint with white on that layer to lighten, or black to darken, with a low opacity for the brush tool. Works like dodging and burning but alittle different. As looking at your picture, it is perfect just the way it is. Forgive me, but my eye's wiggle from all the options in photoshop