Birds in the Everglades

[soflatechie]

These were taken in a couple of different spots. Once was the Wakadahatchee wetlands in West palm, and the other was the Anhinga Trail in Everglades National Park.


Wetlands fowl 2 by SoFlaTechie, on Flickr


Spreading my wings by SoFlaTechie, on Flickr


Spreading by SoFlaTechie, on Flickr


Elegance 2 by SoFlaTechie, on Flickr


Birdie by SoFlaTechie, on Flickr


Wha? by SoFlaTechie, on Flickr


Hanging in there by SoFlaTechie, on Flickr


Bird in nest by SoFlaTechie, on Flickr

 

[SCraig]

A little bit overboard on the unsharp mask it looks to me. There are some good compositions there just harmed by some overzealous post-processing in my opinion. The last one is by far the best because the post processing was held to a minimum.

 

[Mully]

I like them but the last is the best for me

 

[Tony S]

I also like the last one best of the bunch. It's a careful line not to overdo the processing sometimes.

 

[soflatechie]

Thanks for the feedback. Yes I am aware of my struggles during processing. Other than the sharpness being overboard, what else do you see? I can tell you what I did but I would rather you tell me what you see first.

Thanks again.

 

[Tony S]

For the Everglades the first three are very cool in their color temperature, a bit too much cyan/blue to them.

 

[SCraig]

Most of them appear to be overboard on unsharp mask. Look at things like the tiny limbs in the first and next to last one. Each limb looks like it has been outlined in silver. That's an artifact of excessive USM. Unsharp mask actually increases sharpness at the edges of objects but when it is overdone it gives them that false appearance that I see here.

 

[Aloicious]

I have to agree on the sharpening, I really like some of the images aside from the sharpening. remember when you're doing sharpening, do it AFTER you resize the image to it's final size. I usually apply any sharpening just before I save the image, and I try to keep it as subtle as possible. Applying sharpening is like a model using makeup, the trick is to use just enough to help but still make it appear that none was used, too much makeup will make the model look like a clown, too much sharpening will make an image look like a "fake".

otherwise you got some good shots. sharpening issues aside, I still like the last one compositionally and overall. is it an egret of some sort?

 

[soflatechie]

Aloicious:

Thanks for the feedback. Not sure if its an egret but a good guess. They are pretty common in that area. Now my secret. I am color blind and trying to overcome it while processing. I am finding more and more that I need to stop trying g to do what my eyes simply cannot do. I am also serious thinking of moving to black and white. I will keep plugging away.

 

[SCraig]

The last one is a Great Blue Heron. Common in this part of the country but normally quite difficult to get close to. They are very nervous and normally take off at the first sign of a human unless they have been around them quite a bit.

Being color blind is not an uncommon issue in photography. Obviously it would be a problem with things such as white balance and B&W would probably be beneficial to you in that respect, but the majority of the delicacy of post processing, as Aloicious pointed out, is in that less is more. Your eyes are most likely more attuned to nuances such as shades and tones than those of us who can see in color. Whereas we might see a single tone of gray in a shadow or highlight you might see a dozen. You don't need to learn to look for anything that you haven't been seeing forever, you just need to learn to see them in different ways.

This is no different than ANY new photographer has to do. A new photographer with color vision usually goes through a spell in which their colors are garish and excessively saturated because they are trying to see a distinct separation between colors as opposed to subtle separation between colors. In your case you will simply see subtle differentiations in grayscale as opposed to distinct differentiations in grayscale. You've been doing this all your life and just never taken notice of it.

Look at your photographs above. The pieces of feather hanging along the Heron's back in the last photograph have a delicate transition from the long, stringy feathers into her back. You couldn't take the point of a pin and say this pixel belongs to feather and this pixel belongs to back because they have blended together. Now look at the reeds in the top of the very first photograph. Because of the aliasing in the USM you COULD take the point of a pin and say this goes with a reed and this goes with the background because there is no blending. It has to blend, but the blend has to be subtle and not harsh and distinct. You've been seeing that all your life but never really saw it.

Work on it. The fact that you got the last one to work tells me that you can do it if you want to.