Seagull in Flight C&C appreciated

[Cantab]

Hello Bruce, I can only speak to what I do. I use Nikon's matrix metering for all of my bird photography. I also have the camera set to Auto White Balance and Auto ISO. I have the shutter speed set at a minimum of 1/500 and an aperture of f8. I like to keep things simple and concentrate on the bird rather than camera settings. The only setting I change is to use the +/- EV button to lower the exposure to -1EV if shooting a white bird or a bird with large white areas. For a black bird I would go the other way to +1EV. I do this to preserve the feather detail in the white and black feathers. I shoot RAW so from that initial image I do the rest in Lightroom. As Dan (NothernFocus) wrote in another thread I think of the camera as a data collector to give me data I can work with in Lightroom to develop an image.If the white balance is not what I want I fix it, if the exposure in not what I want I fix it. The things that cannot be fixed are a out of focus subject in an image, blown highlights or shadows, and a severely overexposed or underexposed image.

Joe, thanks for outlining your BIF process. I've been reviewing your pp advice on another thread and discovered I have some eagle photos where there is no clipping so I'll apply your advice on those and post them in due course.

[Brownbear]

Hi Joe,

I'm not sure why I lightened the shadow. I suppose I just thought that that part of the photo was dark and that shadows were not a good thing. Thank you letting me know that it was unnecessary. I am using CH, and following your general BIF guidelines, with some experimentation with metering and the focus mode. Your advice has helped me improve my BIF, a lot. Thank you for that Joe

Yes, I can do better and I will keep working on my editing skills. I did use the adjustment brush on just the bird and added clarity, following your recommendations but for some reason your gull just looks better. I think I have made a lot of progress in learning LR but for sure I will keep working on my processing skills. Perhaps it seems that I am a little slow to learn how to process photos, likely because I'm still out every day practicing with my camera, and I'm still trying to figure out how I wish my photos to look. I am still working on seeing if something needs lightening or darkening, clarity, saturation etc but I'm seeing needed edits with greater ease.


Joe, thank you for all of your help and guidance. ( ) Circle symbol for a BIG "thank you" hug sent all the way to Florida!

Hello Christina, my first question is why do you want to lighten the shadow? Shadows are part of life, only when they block all detail do they become a problem. Open the shadows too much and out pops the noise the lurks in every shadow. If you do not want shadows find or shoot images without them. I am not sure how you shoot your birds in flight but I capture them using the CH (Continuous High) setting. The one caution I would extend using this mode is that the buffer can be filled quickly, so do not begin shooting until the bird is close. From the multiple images this captures I pick the best.

Regarding your edit... you can do better. Use the Adjustment Brush on just the bird, lower the exposure on the areas not showing detail and then for the whole bird add clarity of about +20. Clarity is another form of sharpening in Lightroom.

[Brownbear]

Hi Bruce,

You are most welcome to post your eagles here in this thread.

PS Joe, I'm working on a better edit.

Joe, thanks for outlining your BIF process. I've been reviewing your pp advice on another thread and discovered I have some eagle photos where there is no clipping so I'll apply your advice on those and post them in due course.

[Brownbear]

Hi Joe,

I did the edit again. I think this one is closer to your edit and I hope you agree.



PS I am going to post some nice BIF shots to show you that I am progressing.

[jprzybyla]

Much better...

[Brownbear]

Thank you Joe. I will continue to work hard on developing my processing skills.