Female Cardinal

bazooka · Feb 16, 2012

Yet another solid photograph. You've come a long way.

I like the comp, I like the light. The only recommendations I would make are PP adjustments and are completely subjective.

The image has a yellow tone to it. Also, I feel the bird needs to be separated from the background a bit more, both in color and tone.

Finally, the right and bottom edges have some brighter areas that I would like better if they were more subdued.

Here is a 15 minute edit consisting of curve adjustments and hue/saturation adjustments, a touch of burning on the edge bright brances and dodging on the front edge of the bird. I also added some sharpening at the end. I have the psd if you would like it. Again, this is just my personal preference and I'm just providing it as an alternative to consider and compare. Feel free to not like it.

RebeccaAPhotography · Feb 16, 2012

Pixel you have come along very nicely. I agree with rose this would be a cool Christmas card! I love it

fokker · Feb 16, 2012

Really nice shot, personally I love the soft lighting look.

Bazooka, I think your edit technically an improvement, the bird pops more and the WB is more 'correct' but I still find myself liking the feel of the original better.

PixelRabbit · Feb 17, 2012

bazooka said:
Yet another solid photograph. You've come a long way.

I like the comp, I like the light. The only recommendations I would make are PP adjustments and are completely subjective.

The image has a yellow tone to it. Also, I feel the bird needs to be separated from the background a bit more, both in color and tone.

Finally, the right and bottom edges have some brighter areas that I would like better if they were more subdued.

Here is a 15 minute edit consisting of curve adjustments and hue/saturation adjustments, a touch of burning on the edge bright brances and dodging on the front edge of the bird. I also added some sharpening at the end. I have the psd if you would like it. Again, this is just my personal preference and I'm just providing it as an alternative to consider and compare. Feel free to not like it.

Yay you made it ! I was hoping you would pop in

I waited a bit to reply because I wanted to ponder your edit (thank you for doing it!)
After a day of going back and making sure I wasn't getting ready to defend my original image because ... well .. I took it! ... I'm going to jump in.

I like mine

I do agree that technically yours shows her colour more accurately to when she is in sunlight and makes her pop more... but... I also think that it makes it a "mainstream/typical" bird shot , I get a feeling of calm from mine that seems to be missing in the edit and that makes me like mine better.

As you said it is the subjective part of the image, and I like that it is causing the discussion that it is. I feel like the photo is solid edited either way... in different ways.

This might be a little early in the game (having only started in November) but I feel like my liking the "different" lighting/shots/exposures etc is going to translate into my "style" and that excites me

so I better be prepared to defend my shots

RebeccaAPhotography said:
Pixel you have come along very nicely. I agree with rose this would be a cool Christmas card! I love it

Thank you Rebecca!

fokker said:
Really nice shot, personally I love the soft lighting look.

Bazooka, I think your edit technically an improvement, the bird pops more and the WB is more 'correct' but I still find myself liking the feel of the original better.

Thanks Fokker, your post helped me organize my own thoughts

PixelRabbit · Feb 17, 2012

Bynx said:
Great shot. I like everything about this, the composition, the colors, the focus, the lighting. I wouldnt change a pixel.

Thanks Bynx!

bazooka · Feb 17, 2012

Honestly I'm glad you have a firm stand with specific reasoning behind it. When I started out, it was difficult to see what "could be" when all I was looking at was a dull raw file. I actually think that may be one benefit of starting out shooting both raw and jpg... you can see how the camera would have processed it, which gives you one version of the final image. You might try to re-create that version with the raw file for practice, or take it in a completely different direction. But at least you know how incredibly different the raw file looks in the processor and how it *might* come out on the other end.

I can see the appeal of the original. It is much warmer and less realistic. It's easier to see it as an art piece instead of a photograph whereas my version is more of a straight photograph as fokker pointed out.