Curving around

Dick on Aruba

Today I played for the sake of exposure and see what I could do in extreme situations. The histogram was my companion. I can tell you that in case of BIF’s and Snowy Egrets, it’s a hard nut to crack.

I also play around with the curves of Nikon Capture 4.4 which give me great results. I’m not really a PP guy but the curves can produce often the result I want.

Until I get the proper “classes” as often advised, I have to deal with what I learned bit by bit.

Here some captures from today and processed to my satisfaction (more or less).

Any advice is always welcome.

I hope you enjoy them.

[Click image to enlarge to 1280 x 1024]

Capture # 1.

-0.33EV, -0.66EV, +0.33EV and +0.66EV didn’t give me the results I wanted. I had to “Curve the bird up” to show some detail. This produced noise which I had to remove with Photo Shop 7.0. Well, I still like the results.




Capture # 2.

Same thing as the capture above, but this time I could not save the color of the sky in NC 4.4. I love how this pelican coming in for landing.




Capture # 3.

The sun was so bright that you're able to see the bone structure through his wing. Captured with -0.66EV but didn’t help the exposure much. Also here I “curved” the bird to my likings.




Capture # 4.

With sweat on my forehead I got the details of his wings with NC 4.4. I still wonder if this can be done straight out of the camera.




Capture # 5.

Well this Egret-detail came out fantastic in my eyes. Still two slightly blown areas on the bird, but I recovered a lot of details with NC 4.4 curves. Exposure was -0.33.




Dick.

Harryb

You got some good BIFs there. Looks like you had some real difficult lighting.

jwear

try Rons dvd this will give you exposer help pp help and give you a hard to understand but gets better with each reading and shooting a way to read the histogram Ben and Harry have a better handel on this than i do but for now i thing it is $70 you have a class than you can sit in on when you want to --nnice shots

Dick on Aruba

Harryb wrote:

You got some good BIFs there. Looks like you had some real difficult lighting.

Thanks Harry.

Dick on Aruba

jwear wrote:

try Rons dvd ...

Thanks Jeff.

I try to order the DVD but my country is not listed in their country-list. When I try to email them to ask for advice, the emails came back as "not excisting". Well I try another day.

Dick.

bfjr

Keep at it your getting better all the time

Osprey Whisperer

I like that 2nd pelican. Great action capture/angle.......but just would have liked to see a bit more room at the bottom so the wing tip wasn't crowded/clipped. Keep 'em coming.

Harryb

Dick on Aruba wrote:

Thanks Jeff.

I try to order the DVD but my country is not listed in their country-list. When I try to email them to ask for advice, the emails came back as "not excisting". Well I try another day.

Dick.

If you want Dick I could order the DVD for you and then mail it to you after I received your payment. OR you can order it and have them ship it to me and I would then mail it to you.

Dick on Aruba

bfjr wrote:

Keep at it your getting better all the time

Thanks Benjamin.

Dick on Aruba

Bird Man Photographer wrote:

...but just would have liked to see a bit more room at the bottom so the wing tip wasn't crowded/clipped. Keep 'em coming.

Thanks Mike.

Yeah...unfortunately the frame end right there.

Dick.

Dick on Aruba

Harryb wrote:

If you want Dick I could order the DVD for you and then mail it to you after I received your payment. OR you can order it and have them ship it to me and I would then mail it to you.

Thanks Harry.

You might take a peek at your email.

Dick.