Eye of the Emu

[Kurt_Horne]

• NIKON CORPORATION NIKON Z 6_2
• NIKKOR Z 70-200mm f/2.8 VR S Z TC-2.0x
• ƒ/5.6
• 260mm
• 1/500s
• ISO 2500
• Fri, 23 August 2024 1:15 PM

Looking back on last year's trip to Nova Scotia (because its cold and wet outside here) and wanted to do a reprocess on this emu head shot into a B&W. Not sure of the story behind this bird but it was located at a wildlife refuge on Cape Breton Island, where I grew up before moving westward.

 

[Jonathan Ashton]

The B&W rendition on th eeye looks good, composition fine, DOF perhaps just a little too shallow, nevertheless the relevant details/structure look good.

 

[Kurt_Horne]

The B&W rendition on th eeye looks good, composition fine, DOF perhaps just a little too shallow, nevertheless the relevant details/structure look good.

Thanks Jonathan, I'll take that!

 

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Kurt ... why not going B&W with this one , good idea !!

I am overall fine with the shot , would agree with Jon about the DOF ... a bit more would have been better !!
Going darker with the BG ( specially above ) would help to make the hair do stand out better .

TFS Andreas

 

[Kurt_Horne]

Hi Kurt ... why not going B&W with this one , good idea !!

I am overall fine with the shot , would agree with Jon about the DOF ... a bit more would have been better !!
Going darker with the BG ( specially above ) would help to make the hair do stand out better .

TFS Andreas

Thanks Andreas.

 

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Kurt, normally I feel Avian should be displayed in colour because they are so beautiful, with rich, bold, strong, striking colours, even iridescent, but because you have more texture and differing plumage it does work, as it almost has a prehistoric look.

As an option, I might back off the more harsher blacks and pull more of that mid tone out, creating more detail and having softer light on the subject. Then think about treating the BKG to 'sculpt' great word, (love it in this context) to add the layering to throw the subject out. Your job is to take a 2D subject and try to make it 3D, hence why sculpt works so well in the narrative and I just love to use it.

TFS
Steve

 

[Kurt_Horne]

Hi Kurt, normally I feel Avian should be displayed in colour because they are so beautiful, with rich, bold, strong, striking colours, even iridescent, but because you have more texture and differing plumage it does work, as it almost has a prehistoric look.

As an option, I might back off the more harsher blacks and pull more of that mid tone out, creating more detail and having softer light on the subject. Then think about treating the BKG to 'sculpt' great word, (love it in this context) to add the layering to throw the subject out. Your job is to take a 2D subject and try to make it 3D, hence why sculpt works so well in the narrative and I just love to use it.

TFS
Steve

Thanks Steve, I agree, a few of the bids I've converted to B&W didn't really work out. I liked this one and an american coot. The emu is such a prehistoric bird, and not a lot of colour around the head, some blue scaly skin on the neck and orange eyes is all. I actually think that scaly skin looks better in B&W lol.

Tried a bit of what you suggested here.

• NIKON CORPORATION NIKON Z 6_2
• NIKKOR Z 70-200mm f/2.8 VR S Z TC-2.0x
• ƒ/5.6
• 260mm
• 1/500s
• ISO 2500
• Fri, 23 August 2024 1:15 PM

 

[Steve Kaluski]

• Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Classic 14.2 (Macintosh)

Thanks Steve, I agree, a few of the bids I've converted to B&W didn't really work out. I liked this one and an american coot. The emu is such a prehistoric bird, and not a lot of colour around the head, some blue scaly skin on the neck and orange eyes is all. I actually think that scaly skin looks better in B&W lol.

Tried a bit of what you suggested here.

What you need to think about Kurt is how colours convert when translated to B/W, no one does! You should look at filters for B/W and see what they do, then you will see/know how the colours play out. B/W is all about Contrast unlike colour, and where you have pure blacks with shades throughout to pure white, a Greyscale if you like, so B/W is shooting as tones.

This was the 'kind' of direction I was thinking when I wrote my feedback, it's the only way you can, because you see in realtime what you are talking about.