Guillimot Pigeons in Action - Continued

[Brownbear]

I'm struggling with exposing these birds in action over water (ie; exposing the birds and the water correctly)

These are from the same photo shoot as the last set, but photographed about 45 minutes earlier, unprocessed except for sharpening with a mask after downsizing.. (because I my processing skills need more work)

Anyway, in looking at these shots I think the water looks better? And the histogram is wider with better tone? If yes, I will try again around this time, perhaps a little earlier.

Photographed following Joe's technique Manual SS 2500 A 4 (Joe I needed more light so I dropped from F8 but still experimenting) Exp. Bias +.7 Auto iso averaging 1250 Matrix metering (Exposed just a little to the right)


I would appreciate some feedback on the exposure of the birds and the water, and the tone... Thank you.

[Cantab]

Christina, I'm looking at these photos on an iPad so you may need to take my comments with a grain of salt. My overall impression is that they're somewhat underexposed and/or low in contrast. But you said you'd done no pp and I think I read in one of the CiC tutorials that RAW images are generally a bit flat until contrast is added (mine certainly are) -- so that may be the reason. And then, of course, there's the problem that the white feathers might have been clipped if you'd increased the original exposure.

It's hard to comment on the water, apart from the fact that it looks very calm. The appearance of water varies so much.

I look forward to reading the comments of others.

What did the bird have in its mouth?

[Brownbear]

Thank you for your comments Bruce.

Yes, they are the raw photos turned straight into jpegs and sharpened with an unsharp mask... the reason I posted them is because in these shots the water looks fairly close to what it should be and whenever I try and process the raw files the water looks funky. So I'm trying to find the best time of day to photograph these birds and since the tone looks okay (I hope) I was thinking that this time of day would be a good time to visit again, so I'm checking because I want to know if the water looks normal (Blue ocean water) and if the tone is okay.

Yes, I exposed to the right a little bit but not too much or the white feathers in the birds gets clipped.

A fish I also have a black cormorant with a fish in it's mouth but they are even more difficult to photograph on water then these little guys so I will tackle this challenge first.

[NorthernFocus]

Hi, Christina. I'm on a laptop so not the most accurate monitor. But as far as an untouched exposure goes it looks pretty good. A tweak to the WB, little bit of contrast, and saturation boost and these are pretty much there. It looks like these weren't in direct sunlight which makes it a lot simpler. Did you convert these in LR? If so did it do some auto processing on them?

[Brownbear]

Hi Dan,

They will be here for a few days at least, so if you could view them later I would be most appreciative.

I will try your suggested edits after you view them. It was early morning so the sun was soft and not direct.

I exported the raw files from LR as is (no processing except to make smaller (I hope LR does not do things without my setting it to do so) and exported to my pictures file and uploaded to elements where I applied an un-sharp mask.

Thank you for your help.

Hi, Christina. I'm on a laptop so not the most accurate monitor. But as far as an untouched exposure goes it looks pretty good. A tweak to the WB, little bit of contrast, and saturation boost and these are pretty much there. It looks like these weren't in direct sunlight which makes it a lot simpler. Did you convert these in LR? If so did it do some auto processing on them?

[Cantab]

...I hope LR does not do things without my setting it to do so.

Christina, I've got a vague recollection that there **may** be a few things LR does by default. I may be completely wrong on that but an easy way to check what's happening on your machine would be to import a new RAW image and then look at the sharpening settings. They presumably will all be at 0% if LR is not doing any capture sharpening.

[Brownbear]

Hi Bruce,

Thank you. I checked LR and for raw files the colour noise is set at -25% and also when I export it sharpens for the web, standard level. Everything else I have set to zero.I'm not sure if the sharpening is necessary since I applied an unsharp mask in Element so it is good that I checked.

Thank you.

[ScoutR]

Christina, I've got a vague recollection that there **may** be a few things LR does by default. I may be completely wrong on that but an easy way to check what's happening on your machine would be to import a new RAW image and then look at the sharpening settings. They presumably will all be at 0% if LR is not doing any capture sharpening.

Hi Christina and Cantab: Just had to pipe in here. Lightroom gave me a lot of grief until I figured out that it did make some changes on import. I found some info below that should help. I believe this applies to version 5.

How to change Lightroom's default Develop settings
The Develop module's defaults include:



•White balance: As Shot
•Blacks: 5
•Brightness: 50
•Contrast: 25
•Point Curve: Medium
•Sharpening: 25
•Color noise reduction: 25
•Profile: Adobe Standard


These defaults can be overridden by a Develop Preset applied at Import time, or can be changed.
To change the defaults in the Develop module:


1.Press the Reset button at the bottom of the right panel. This will adjust all controls to the current default settings.
2.Make any adjustments you wish to make to the defaults.
3.Press and hold the Alt/Option key, and note that the Reset button is now Set Default... Press it.

Note that if you have your Preferences set to have different defaults per camera and/or per ISO, you may need to repeat these steps for each applicable camera, ISO, or camera/ISO combination.

Note 2: This will affect new Imports, but will not affect images which have already been imported.

I didn't know that holding the Alt key changed the Reset button to a Default button. I'll have to try that. You might want to Zero everything out though and make your own Preset Called Zeroed "or something similar" then you can use that if Lightroom has made changes to some photos that you would like to change. Just select the photo(s) and apply your Zeroed Preset to them

Hope that helps
Wendy

[Brownbear]

Thank you Wendy for sharing a very informative post which I will use tomorrow to double check everything... I do have it set at zero for everything but colour noise, as I tried zeroing that and the colour noise is very apparent. I have LR 4.

Actually I don't have any jpegs in LR just the raw files are imported and the jpegs stay in windows. I'm pretty sure the raw files are unprocessed, so I think I'm fine but I will double check tomorrow for sure... Or I may have overridden them already as I have a book that I use for help.

Screen shot



Thank you for a very helpful and informative post.