Raindrops keep falling on my head

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James Babbitt

Well-known member
Joined
Aug 30, 2016
Messages
205
Location
So Cal
Little Tinamou_10-4-2024­_La Florida_23.jpg

When does the story/action outweigh the technical shortcomings of an image? This image is an example of that quandry. Taken in very dark conditions in Colombia, it had been raining all night when we slipped into the hide. This Little Tinamou came very early and very close. As the bird was standing there a large leaf above its head that had gathered water overnight, tipped and dumped its load. Shot with Canon R5, 600 mm at f/4.0, 1/80, ISO 8000. Obviously there is considerable motion blur of the head and beak.
DXO PR4, PS with bird brought up slightly and highlights in BG brought down. Very small amount of Topaz AI Sharpen applied to eye.
 
Hey James ... such a cool picture , love the content !!! Bet quite unusual to see
As posted it does look not very attractive on the color and tonal front , IMHO.
I would try to emphasize the subject by darkening the FG / BG ... and lightning the water drops and streaks .
Overall very yellow and / or orange color .
TFS Andreas
 
Hi James, nice to think outside of the box, but overall this isn't working for me.

- The framing is out, the subject is tucked into the bottom RHC with zero space to breath
- Colour appears way to warm and the exposure equal, no varying depth of light & dark
- The SS is too low, creating motion blur in the head, for rain, subject to how hard it falls you want something between 1/125 - 1/250 but it all comes back to how hard its falling, what type of streaks you are looking for, but there is no silver bullet, trial & error.
- You need a dark backdrop to highlight the rain, darkening the FG will do diddly squat here, you could easily darken the BKG in PP, but as presented it doesn't work.
- I would evict that 'leaf' in the bottom RHC
- In addition stopping down, you can find the DoF swallows up the streaks, so I would suggesting shooting a few frames and adjust the SS next time if you are using auto ISO, but be mindful of your best friend your Histogram.

TFS
Steve
 
Great idea and amusing. The first two thing that struck me was the colours - a bit too orange perhaps, secondly the head and especially the eye, it is not sharp. Great idea though, I hope you are able to get some more under similar circumstances. Having said that I like the image, the droplets on the birds head almost make up for the slightly fuzzy head.
 
I kinda like it! It made me laugh, and for that reason the image is successful. The slight subject movement on the head made me think of it bouncing as the rain drop hit it. Yes, it has its shortcomings with some tweaks that could improve on it, but overall it is a memorable and fun frame IMO.
 
Little Tinamou_10-4-2024­_La Florida_23 edited.jpg

Thanks to everyone. Been off line for a few days-Windows 11 issues. I certainly am aware of the limitations of this image; in retrospect should have bumped up the SS at the time of the shot, but as we all know, sometimes things happen too quickly. The moment is lost. I went back and cooled the entire image slightly, darkened the FG and BG, then went back and brightened the streaks of rain. Removed the leaf on the R side (how could I have missed that initally?)
Cannot do much with the crop. This bird was so close I did not think I could focus the 600. Also cannot do anything about the motion blur, but I agree with Daniel-the image made me smile at the time I shot it and even now.
Any better?
 
162996-Little-Tinamou-10-4-2024-La-Florida-23-edited.jpg

Hi James, kudos in going back, but I feel you are a little conservative. I'm away so it's just a quick fix on the MBPro, but I feel everything still looks light, where as I think you need to be more aggressive in your approach. The BKG needs to be way darker to really start to show the rain and also desaturate it so it's less conflicting with the subject and perch. then you get the layering and you 'build' you image.

Hope this all makes sense?

Steve
 
View attachment 231363
Hi James, kudos in going back, but I feel you are a little conservative. I'm away so it's just a quick fix on the MBPro, but I feel everything still looks light, where as I think you need to be more aggressive in your approach. The BKG needs to be way darker to really start to show the rain and also desaturate it so it's less conflicting with the subject and perch. then you get the layering and you 'build' you image.

Hope this all makes sense?

Steve
Absolute sense. Will see what I can do.
 

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