Bird on a Branch | Morning light

[PhotoRob]

I've been fighting myself over the colors in this shot - if I should knock down the sun on the bird a bit, how much to tinker; thoughts?

(handheld, 200mm (x1.5 crop) - Circle Bar B ranch in Lakeland Florida )

[Donald]

Rob

Looks like we're trading comments on branches/trees over to one side of a frame, but I wondered about cropping to inside that 'y' junction towards the right on the branch to get rid of that background tree?

[PhotoRob]

Thanks Donald, so true. Very much appreciate the feedback. Here's a much tighter crop, which eliminates the tree above and below that 'y' in the branch...

[Viana]

Since you are asking about the adjustment of the colours. . .

I did 2 as examples.

Cropped using rule of thirds. I like the branch and the background since otherwise, there is not much of interest besides the bird.

Adjusted white balance and colours, especially the yellows, greens and blues that distort the actual colours of the bird.

Adjusted hue of feathers that appeared a cold blue on its back.

Warmed up the photo since all the blues seemed so cold. That, of course is rather subjective.

Added a warm vignette in order to spotlight the bird.

The other vignette is more toward the gold of morning.

Sharpened with unsharp mask.

Both are a bit exaggerated, but you get the idea. Have fun fiddling with this.

[Geoff F]

I don't think I would have cropped quite as tight as you have done in your second image, Rob. I think you can have slightly more background and any few remaining bits of the background tree could be easily cloned out.

I'm not sure about that colour cast though. I suppose you could try starting again with a 'cooler' white balance but I'm not sure how much it would help.

Alternatively, would it work in B&W?

[PhotoRob]

I don't think I would have cropped quite as tight as you have done in your second image, Rob. I think you can have slightly more background and any few remaining bits of the background tree could be easily cloned out.

I'm not sure about that colour cast though. I suppose you could try starting again with a 'cooler' white balance but I'm not sure how much it would help.

Alternatively, would it work in B&W?

Thanks for commenting Geoff - knocked the temp down a bit, quickly removed some of the background tree interference and widened the crop a bit - here's the result:

[PhotoRob]

Since you are asking about the adjustment of the colours. . .

I did 2 as examples.

...


Thanks for samples Viana, very exciting adjustments! Your post processing kung-fu exceeds my own, I look forward to that degree of experiementing in the future...

[ScoutR]

Hi Robert, I love this shot but i find everything a bit dark looking, even on your rework and the highlight on the bird does appear to have a greenish colour cast that is hard (for me to correct) Anyway here is my attempt using Lightroom. Basically I have made some adjustments to white balance and also increasec brightness. I still wish the highlights on the bird had a yellow or even a pinkish cast, but I can't get that without creating a mess.

Still love the shot though, they are beautiful birds.



Wendy

Edit: I kind of like what Viana has done with her second rework, except of course that it gets a bit too far from reality, but I do like the way she/he has adjusted the colours