Tis the season for Pelicans!

[ajsmith]

WOW! These are great shots. The detail that you captured in the pelicans is just beautiful. I like the warmer tones in #2 for wb.

[jprzybyla]

Where has this photographer been hiding? Nice work, although I wish the wings hadn't been clipped in the last two. My favorite is #2, love the waves and the action.

[Wavelength]

Really stupendous!!!

[Brownbear]

Thank you Ali, Joe and Nandakumar. Truly appreciated.

Joe... As always thank you for all of your help during the past two years. . There were so many times that I just couldn't help clipping that I intend to save up for zoom 300 mm lens or improve my timing...

Dan, as always, thank you for your help.

I discovered that #2 is not cropped, so more room to move is impossible. I tried your 4 x5 crop on #4 and it works much better... Thank you for sharing.

Here is the full size image of the pelican you like and one that I like. I processed in LR to increase contrast, saturation and vibrancy, clarity and sharpened. (not done previously as it was posted just for fun) Note: I uploaded these full size to photobucket but I'm not so sure they loaded that way.

I didn't know what to do with the light to improve it? I do like the blurred background and detail of the pelican, and the head on position but his/her beak looks a little washed out to me. I burned the beak by 30 in LR but it didn't seem to help this much. No clipping but washed out.



Of the pelicans I've had time to go through I especially like the one below because of the pose captured while landing on top of the wave and rich blue colour of the ocean... What do you think of this one?



Thank you to everyone.

[NorthernFocus]

Awesome, Christina. Hope you don't mind I took a crack at editing in PSE11.

1. selectively adjusted levels to increase contrast and lower mid tones
2. selectively increased saturation in yellow and red channels by +15
3. selectively sharpened bird
4. made a layer of the BG wave, moved it down, feathered it in
5. cropped to taste, 4x6 format
6. lightened BG
7. flattened image

The upper part of the bill is sun bleached on the real bird. Not much you can do about that.

[Brownbear]

Thank you Dan. I'm truly appreciative that you took the time to edit my photo. You brought out the best of everything in the image in your edit which I love.

I'm on a rather steep learning curve with everything and I'm not capable of #1 and #4, yet but I will learn and revisit this image when I'm a feeling a little more competent in editing.

A BIG thank you.

Awesome, Christina. Hope you don't mind I took a crack at editing in PSE11.

1. selectively adjusted levels to increase contrast and lower mid tones
2. selectively increased saturation in yellow and red channels by +15
3. selectively sharpened bird
4. made a layer of the BG wave, moved it down, feathered it in
5. cropped to taste, 4x6 format
6. lightened BG
7. flattened image

The upper part of the bill is sun bleached on the real bird. Not much you can do about that.

[Bobobird]

Wow. that is some edit from just the online jpg.

[Bobobird]

Okie though that is not how that place seems to work. I will "un" those that were clearly done because they were your shots.

Thank you Grahame, Matt and Bobo.

Bobo, please only favourite images of mine that you think are strong. I learn by sharing my images with others and if someone like you, whose photography I admire immensely likes all my photos, it will not help me improve... I'm still learning to analyze my own photos critically. However, I appreciate the kind gesture.

I will get around to the edits later today.

[Brownbear]

Yes, indeed. And I'm always reminded of how much I still have to learn.

PS Thank you Bobo.. appreciated

Wow. that is some edit from just the online jpg.

[jamn4ex]

Christina I cant say anything that hasn't been said already. But I want you to know how wonderful I feel these shots are !!

[Bobobird]

Done but only because they appeared slightly soft which a bit of pp would have fixed.

[Brownbear]

Hi Dan,

I tackled the edits again this time using Adobe Photoshop. I even managed to create a layer and move the bokeh down in one of the images.

I forgot to ask why one would flatten an image?

I followed all of your steps but my pelican looks lighter and I suspect that has something to do with the curves tool.




An attempt to make my pelican more contrasty



Uncropped and the bokeh as was




Are these an improvement over my first try, or not?

Thank you.

Awesome, Christina. Hope you don't mind I took a crack at editing in PSE11.

1. selectively adjusted levels to increase contrast and lower mid tones
2. selectively increased saturation in yellow and red channels by +15
3. selectively sharpened bird
4. made a layer of the BG wave, moved it down, feathered it in
5. cropped to taste, 4x6 format
6. lightened BG
7. flattened image

The upper part of the bill is sun bleached on the real bird. Not much you can do about that.

[NorthernFocus]

Hey, Christina. IMO they are improved. I think if you kick the saturation up a bit you're done.

I typically don't use the curve tool but rather the old archaic levels layer instead. Now that I've started using LR I am using curves a bit by necessity. Trying to learn enough about it to make it a one stop shop for PP except for extreme situations.

Sorry about the comment about the "flattening" step. That is simply when you "flatten" the layers in PS when you're done with all your edits. It was meaningless in the context of the discussion.

[rudi]

I wonder if anyone has any input on how to make the best of waves in bird images...

For example in image 3 I decreased the exposure to make the beauty of the wave stand out more but it darkened the pelican... I tried selectively lightening the pelican in LR, dodging and also shadow but it didn't look right.

ie, as a photographed the pelicans in the waves I adjusted my exposure compensation just enough so the white water of the waves was not overexposed.

Thank you in advance.

Hi Christina,
You could try some LCE, which I find a very usefull tool. Try different settings until you see something you like.
Hope this helps.
All very nice images, difficult to pick a favourite.
Kr, Rudi

[Brownbear]

Dan. Good to hear about my post-processing, and thank you for all your help. I will try boosting the saturation.

No worries. I should know what flattening is!


Rudi, Thank you. I will also try LCE. Yes, very helpful as I forgot about boosting the contrast this way.

[Downrigger]

Really special set, a great achievement. Nothing to add to the above, from which I learned a bunch, but as far as "Are these an improvement over my first try, or not?" it seems to me you are attempting to make a silk purse from a silk purse.

[Brownbear]

Hi Mark,

Thank you so much. Truly I need to improve my post-processing skills. I've learned quite a bit about Lightroom this year and I think I've improved a lot but the truth is I have received many comments on my images being too soft, too low contrast, and I've even had folks send me messages to advise how to say I need to do more post-processing. So one of my goals this year is to tackle this skill once and for all.

Dan helped me with my herons showing how they needed more contrast and saturation, and he has helped me with this particular pelican. So hearing this feedback and then trying to post-process the image myself to improve my sharpness, contrast and clarity is a very good learning exercise for me. I think that my edits of this pelican and my last heron have been my best edits yet, ie; I am finally starting to see what I need to do to enhance an image. Now I have to be careful as I learn because my taste is for a natural looking, you can touch that bird image balanced with sufficient sharpness.

Admittedly not my favourite thing to do (and likely the reason for my extended year-long procrastination) but an essential thing to learn to do.

Really special set, a great achievement. Nothing to add to the above, from which I learned a bunch, but as far as "Are these an improvement over my first try, or not?" it seems to me you are attempting to make a silk purse from a silk purse.

[GeorgeM]

Really strong work, Christina. I like all of them.
I like pelicans as well, having watched them flying overhead as well as out on the ocean at Kure Beach, NC. The Brown Pelicans are eerily quiet as they pass overhead and they put me in mind of pterodactyls or some such ancient bird-like creature. I especially like how you can see their wing/arm bones from below.

[Brownbear]

Thank you. I adore pelicans.

An ancient bird-like creature! That is the first time I've heard them described like that and it seems very fitting! More often than not they look rather homely and ungainly but sometimes they are beauty defined.

Really strong work, Christina. I like all of them.
I like pelicans as well, having watched them flying overhead as well as out on the ocean at Kure Beach, NC. The Brown Pelicans are eerily quiet as they pass overhead and they put me in mind of pterodactyls or some such ancient bird-like creature. I especially like how you can see their wing/arm bones from below.