Hop, skip & Jump

[joebranko]

Prior to take off, these swan gather speed by running on the water surface!

[Shadowman]

Nice capture.

[joebranko]

A little closer:

[Wavelength]

WOW great...in the second one you may trim out the sky and bring birds closer to view...

[IzzieK]

You got that boat guy out. Great! I think Nandakumar is right...just a little bit of trim to make it a pano but I disagree about cropping all the skies, leave a bit to show the environment. Just my opinion...

[Geoff F]

I like having those static ducks in the foreground of #1 but they are out of focus so I think I would reluctantly clone them out and crop a little closer on the bottom and left side. But definitely retain the background as it is now, including the canoe.

[joebranko]

You got that boat guy out. Great! I think Nandakumar is right...just a little bit of trim to make it a pano but I disagree about cropping all the skies, leave a bit to show the environment. Just my opinion...

Thanks Izzie and Nandakumar. I took a little sky out and also a little water. I also 'moved' them a little to the right. I did not know which way is better; leaving them room to fly into or having them approaching the edge ot the frame on the right. What do you think?

[joebranko]

I like having those static ducks in the foreground of #1 but they are out of focus so I think I would reluctantly clone them out and crop a little closer on the bottom and left side. But definitely retain the background as it is now, including the canoe.

Thanks Geoff. I did not notice the ducks out of focus until you mentioned it. I cloned all but one. I kept it more for the composition even though it was not as sharp as it should have been. How does this look now?

[Geoff F]

Yes that is more like it, Joe. Concentrates more on the main subjects now; but still has a nice looking distant background.

[Manfred M]

Joe - this is one of those scenes that if you had watched your background and shot at a steeper angle and were able to cut out the Skyway Brdige in the background, you would have gotten a much more compelling composition. As things are. you could still do a crop. I've also adjusted the black and white points a bit and moved the mid-point as well. Unfortunately, the leading edge of the bird's wing seems to be blown out.

[joebranko]

Joe - this is one of those scenes that if you had watched your background and shot at a steeper angle and were able to cut out the Skyway Brdige in the background, you would have gotten a much more compelling composition. As things are. you could still do a crop. I've also adjusted the black and white points a bit and moved the mid-point as well. Unfortunately, the leading edge of the bird's wing seems to be blown out.

Thanks Manfred. I thought I had black point and white point adjustments down pat. That is obviously not the case and I will keep working on it. I certainly like how much brighter/livelier your processing has made the shot. However I have not been able to find any info on adjusting mid point in Lightroom. Is this something that is only available in Photoshop?

[joebranko]

Thanks Geoff.

[Manfred M]

Thanks Manfred. I thought I had black point and white point adjustments down pat. That is obviously not the case and I will keep working on it. I certainly like how much brighter/livelier your processing has made the shot. However I have not been able to find any info on adjusting mid point in Lightroom. Is this something that is only available in Photoshop?

I find that many people seem to be a bit afraid to set the black point and white point. The black point is nothing more that the point on the histogram where you see a meaningful black value, i.e. it isn't a thin line along the bottom of the histogram, but rather where you start seeing the significant part of the histogram starting. The same idea holds true for the white value.

If you don't set these properly, your blacks will look gray and your whites will look gray.

With Lightroom, I suspect you are going to have to use the exposure slider in conjunction with setting the black point and white point, if necessary. I find in most images, when they are properly exposed, all have have to do is set the black point and white point.

[joebranko]

The black point is nothing more that the point on the histogram where you see a meaningful black value, i.e. it isn't a thin line along the bottom of the histogram, but rather where you start seeing the significant part of the histogram starting. in conjunction with setting the black point and white point, if necessary. I find in most images, when they are properly exposed, all have have to do is set the black point and white point.

In Lightroom I set the black point and white point in this manner. " I press and hold the 'Alt' key while moving the blacks slider to the left. At the point where I can see black appearing this is my black point. Similarly for the white point, with the alt key pressed I move the white slider to the right. When I see white starting to appear, this is my white point." Occasionally I find that the dark colours ( blues mostly) seem too saturated when I use this procedure. When this happens I play with the saturation and/or the black point to make this colour closer to what I remember.