Bufflehead in flight

[hugh robateau]

Shot this at Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve a couple of months ago. I tried to pull out some details in the blacks after compensating -1 stop to preserve the whites, don't know if I succeded (white on the head still a little hot). Your comments and suggestions are appreciated, Thanks for looking.

[Gyorgy Szimuly]

I don't see the head's whites too hot. Nice capture anyway. The brownish bg is a nice contrast. The catchlight looks strange a bit.
Szimi

[Alfred Forns]

Agree with Szimi To get more textures on the whites try multiplying Should give you a little more

Everything looks great Would only wish for the image to be taken just a millisecond before He seems to be a little past !!!! Excellent !!!

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Hi Hugh, could you post some techs? The pose is great. Too bad it just passed you. There is some noise and the whites are still a bit on the hotter side.

[Fabs Forns]

Hi Hugh,

Wonderful wing display and agree with Al in the timing.

There's a few things you can do about the white, and it depends on your abilities which one it would be best.

1- First, convert (I'm taking for granted you used RAW) a version for the midtones, like the one you have here. Save it.
Open the image again and go darker until the whites look OK to you. Now, open the light image and paste it on top of the darker one.
Create a layer mask, third box from the left at the bottom of the layers palette, and select the brush tool. Making sure black is your foreground color on the tools palette, brush (erase) all the light whites of the image, leaving the rest of the image untouched. If you overlap, white foreground color will paint them back.
Sort of a mini HDR??

2- In PS, Select>Color range, the use either the dropper for more control, moving the slider to select only what you want, or choose highlights, feather it by at least 5 (even up to 20) and make another layer with your selection (control J). Using Multiply as your blending mode, move the opacity of the new layer to taste.

3- Clone or Patch Tool some texture from the neck.

Phewwwww... I'll get off the soap box now :)

[Ivan Miksik]

For me it is a very nice photo!

[James Salywoda]

Well done Hugh as we all know a tough bird and you really did a good job with the shot a bird I want badly captured in flight.... Also the Bufflehead shot I posted earlier was taken at the tide gate at lower mesa .

[Glenn Bartley]

Great pose. It looks a bit soft and yet also over sharpened to me.

[hugh robateau]

Hi Hugh,

Wonderful wing display and agree with Al in the timing.

There's a few things you can do about the white, and it depends on your abilities which one it would be best.

1- First, convert (I'm taking for granted you used RAW) a version for the midtones, like the one you have here. Save it.
Open the image again and go darker until the whites look OK to you. Now, open the light image and paste it on top of the darker one.
Create a layer mask, third box from the left at the bottom of the layers palette, and select the brush tool. Making sure black is your foreground color on the tools palette, brush (erase) all the dark parts of the image, laving the darker whites untouched. If you overlap, white foreground color will paint them back.
Sort of a mini HDR??

2- In PS, Select>Color range, the use either the dropper for more control, moving the slider to select only what you want, or choose highlights, feather it by at least 5 (even up to 20) and make another layer with your selection (control J). Using Multiply as your blending mode, move the opacity of the new layer to taste.

3- Clone or Patch Tool some texture from the neck.

Phewwwww... I'll get off the soap box now :)

Thanks for the tips, Fabs. I will have a second try on this one as soon as locate the raw file (added new hard drives).

[Jody Melanson]

Nice action captured here, Hugh. I know how fast these guys are, great job! It looks a little over processed to me. Did you do some cloning in the water in front and behind him?

[Emil Martinec]

Hi Hugh,

Wonderful wing display and agree with Al in the timing.

There's a few things you can do about the white, and it depends on your abilities which one it would be best.

1- First, convert (I'm taking for granted you used RAW) a version for the midtones, like the one you have here. Save it.
Open the image again and go darker until the whites look OK to you. Now, open the light image and paste it on top of the darker one.
Create a layer mask, third box from the left at the bottom of the layers palette, and select the brush tool. Making sure black is your foreground color on the tools palette, brush (erase) all the light whites of the image, leaving the rest of the image untouched. If you overlap, white foreground color will paint them back.
Sort of a mini HDR??

2- In PS, Select>Color range, the use either the dropper for more control, moving the slider to select only what you want, or choose highlights, feather it by at least 5 (even up to 20) and make another layer with your selection (control J). Using Multiply as your blending mode, move the opacity of the new layer to taste.

3- Clone or Patch Tool some texture from the neck.

Phewwwww... I'll get off the soap box now :)

First of all, a very nice flight image Hugh; agree with Axel that a bit earlier would be great so that it's not flying away.

For images with DR issues I do something similar to what Fabs outlinesin number 1 above. A quicker way to blend them is to copy the dark image layer, then create a layer mask on the lighter image above, opt/alt clicking on the mask and then pasting in the copied dark image. Then go back to the main image, with the mask as the active selection, and make curves adjustment to it til you get close. Then you can touch up any needed areas with the brush tool.

[hugh robateau]

First of all, a very nice flight image Hugh; agree with Axel that a bit earlier would be great so that it's not flying away.

For images with DR issues I do something similar to what Fabs outlinesin number 1 above. A quicker way to blend them is to copy the dark image layer, then create a layer mask on the lighter image above, opt/alt clicking on the mask and then pasting in the copied dark image. Then go back to the main image, with the mask as the active selection, and make curves adjustment to it til you get close. Then you can touch up any needed areas with the brush tool.

Thanks for the tip, Emil.

[Emil Martinec]

Oops! I was thinking about what I wrote and realized that the method I use is a bit more different from Fabs' procedure. I put the dark layer over the light image, then copy the light one into a mask for the dark one on top. The idea is that when the image itself is the mask, the light areas of the mask are light where the image is, allowing the dark image to display; the dark parts are dark on the mask and shine through to the light layer below. This effectively compresses the dynamic range, but the result ends up looking a little flat typically. To recover local contrast, do a gaussian blur of the mask, IIRC radius about 3-8 (just preview it to you get what you like, with the image showing but the mask the active selection for the blur). Then I do a curves adjustment of the mask that sharpens the transition between which layer is showing.