Black-crowned Night-Heron with blossoms


Posted by Cliff Beittel on Sat Mar 13, 2004 7:48 pm

All times are UTC-05:00

Reply to topic  
 First unread post  | 18 posts | 
Image
© 2004 Cliff Beittel, all rights reserved. For discussion only, may not be downloaded for any purpose.

One of the great things about film, especially Velvia, is how flexible it is in exposure. :wink: Any mistakes can be corrected in Photoshop. In this case, I quickly loaded a roll of Provia between flights and shot it at 200 for a one-stop push. At the end of the roll I was distressed to find I had actually exposed a roll of Velvia at 200. I had it pushed processed two stops, but it was still a little dark, as I think Velvia is an 80-ISO film. But after Photoshoping it, I sent a modified file along with the original slide to a buyer who accepts digital (400 dpi). Great to be digital!

I won't be surprised if this still looks dark here, but I suspect my new Photocal luminance of 93 is right for me. Other posts here look good to me, buyers seem to like my 93-lum JPEGs, and prints from my new 2200, using the Tim Grey profile (thanks Mike), perfectly match the monitor.

Canon EOS-3, 400 f4 DO, evaluative at 0 (ambient less 1/3), 1/2000, f4, Velvia at 200 and pushed two stops, full vertical crop from original horizontal.
[b]Cliff Beittel[/b]
[url]http://www.agpix.com/cliffbeittel[/url]

Posted by:
Cliff Beittel
Forum Contributor
Posts: 3210
Joined: 3 Sep 2003

   

by Greg Downing on Sat Mar 13, 2004 8:01 pm
User avatar
Greg Downing
Publisher
Posts: 19318
Joined: 16 Aug 2003
Location: Maryland
Member #:00001
Colors look perfect and very nice shot. Was this up in York? I have to find that spot...

did you blur the background? Looks pretty clean. :)
Greg Downing
Publisher, NatureScapes.Net
[url=http://www.gdphotography.com/]Visit my website for images, workshops and newsletters![/url]
 

by AlexC on Sat Mar 13, 2004 8:17 pm
User avatar
AlexC
Forum Contributor
Posts: 5948
Joined: 17 Aug 2003
Member #:00024
8) 8) 8)
[b]Alex Calzadilla[/b]
[b]Miami, Florida[/b]
[b]NSN-0024[/b]
"At the feast of ego everyone leaves hungry." - Bentley's House of Coffee and Tea, Tucson, AZ
 

by Jim Neiger on Sat Mar 13, 2004 8:49 pm
User avatar
Jim Neiger
Lifetime Member
Posts: 4342
Joined: 25 Aug 2003
Location: Kissimmee, Florida, USA
Member #:00113
Cool shot, Cliff. 8) Were you waiting for a fly by with blossums, or were the blossums a bonus?
[b]Jim Neiger - [url=http://www.flightschoolphotography.com]Flight School Photography[/b][/url]
[b]Kissimmee, Florida[/b]

[url=http://www.flightschoolphotography.com/FSP%20Current%20Workshops.htm][b]Flight School Photography Workshops[/b][/url]
 

by Bill Whala on Sat Mar 13, 2004 9:17 pm
User avatar
Bill Whala
Forum Contributor
Posts: 5979
Joined: 21 Aug 2003
Location: Littleton, Colorado
Cliff,

Killer shot!!! :shock:
Bill Whala

"Aves of similar plumage tend to converge with one another"
 

by LindaY on Sat Mar 13, 2004 10:01 pm
LindaY
Forum Contributor
Posts: 1247
Joined: 18 Oct 2003
Location: SW Florida, USA
Absolutely stunning shot...and good "save" on the film problem. I don't believe that I have ever seen these birds in flight. The branch of flowers is definitely a bonus. :) I did the same thing with mixing up Provia and Velvia a couple of years ago and have never was able to quite get the shots adjusted well enough where they looked very good. :(
Linda Yee
 

by Alan Murphy on Sat Mar 13, 2004 10:34 pm
User avatar
Alan Murphy
Lifetime Member
Posts: 27330
Joined: 20 Aug 2003
Location: Houston, Texas
Member #:00014
Awesome shot Cliff, love the light, BG and blossoms.
Alan Murphy
NSN 0014
www.alanmurphyphotography.com
 

by Sandy Mossberg on Sat Mar 13, 2004 11:57 pm
User avatar
Sandy Mossberg
Lifetime Member
Posts: 5802
Joined: 17 Aug 2003
Location: Boynton Beach, FL USA
Beautiful shot, Cliff. Light ideal. Thanks for continuing to post your cropping.
Sandy Mossberg
Boynton Beach, Florida, USA
[url=http://www.sandymossberg.com][b]SandyMossberg.com[/b][/url]
NSN 0015
 

by Laura Stiefel on Sun Mar 14, 2004 8:09 am
User avatar
Laura Stiefel
Lifetime Member
Posts: 4184
Joined: 20 Aug 2003
Location: Northwest, Ohio
Member #:00229
This is beautiful Cliff. It looks like this Heron was intent upon decorating it's nest. :)
Laura Stiefel
[b]NSN 0229[/b]
 

by Yanni on Sun Mar 14, 2004 8:18 am
Yanni
Forum Contributor
Posts: 198
Joined: 23 Feb 2004
Beatiful shot Cliff. Love the warm feeling colors and lighting of the eye area. Excellent.
 

by Cliff Beittel on Sun Mar 14, 2004 10:06 am
Cliff Beittel
Forum Contributor
Posts: 3210
Joined: 3 Sep 2003
Thanks all for your comments. Greg, this was made here in York last Spring. The background wasn't blurred. I've been experimenting with Tim Grey's 1-pixel stepped Gaussian blur (which works so well there is no need ever to show grain in a sky again). But I didn't do that here, as grain caused by underexposing Velvia was accompanied by falloff in the corners (which almost every lens seems to do at times wide open against a blue sky). To correct both problems at once, I sampled the blue near the bird, created an adjustment layer in that color, reduced opacity until there was just a little falloff left (didn't want a completely uniform sky), then used a black brush to erase the blue over the bird. The sky may look uniform here, as the vertical crop eliminated the corners. The other tools used were Levels, Curves, and Shadow/Highlight.

Jim, most of the trees in the area are Norway Spruce, and most of the nesting material selected by the birds are dead, unattractive spruce sticks. But there's one flowering tree in a neighboring yard which some of the birds seem to like. One was making repeated trips into sun to reach his nest, so I set up below his flight path and got a number of opportunities.
[b]Cliff Beittel[/b]
[url]http://www.agpix.com/cliffbeittel[/url]
 

by Heather Forcier on Sun Mar 14, 2004 12:16 pm
User avatar
Heather Forcier
Site Co-Founder
Posts: 8188
Joined: 17 Aug 2003
Location: Vermont
Member #:00003
Incredible, I love it!
[b]NatureScapes.Net Site Co-Founder
[url=http://www.hforcier.com/][u]Website[/u][/url] | [url=http://www.500px.com/heatherforcier/photos][u]500px Gallery[/u][/url] | [url=https://plus.google.com/117191412635501853092/][u]Google+[/u][/url][/b]
 

by Michael Wolf on Sun Mar 14, 2004 1:14 pm
User avatar
Michael Wolf
Forum Contributor
Posts: 1813
Joined: 23 Aug 2003
Location: South Florida
Cliff,

Great image and a nice save !
Glad you like the Tim Grey Epson profiles.
They really are nice.
However the thanks really goes to Greg.

Hope to see you in the field one day again.

Michael W.
 

by judylynn on Sun Mar 14, 2004 4:51 pm
judylynn
Lifetime Member
Posts: 9878
Joined: 3 Jan 2004
Location: Boynton Beach, Florida
Member #:00226
This is a wonderful shot and what a plus to get him carrying a branch with blosssoms. I love it!
judylynn

Website: [url=http://www.naturestapestryjlm.com/]Nature's Tapestry[/url]
 

by Jim Zipp on Sun Mar 14, 2004 8:38 pm
User avatar
Jim Zipp
Lifetime Member
Posts: 4976
Joined: 21 Aug 2003
Location: CT
Member #:00150
Nice shot Cliff and great post processing! I think I remeber this one?
Jim Zipp
http://www.jimzippphotography.com
 

by Juli Wilcox on Sun Mar 14, 2004 11:38 pm
User avatar
Juli Wilcox
Editor in Chief
Posts: 3373
Joined: 17 Aug 2003
Location: Upper Great Plains
Member #:00010
Cliff---amazing save! I like the composition, sky color and the flowering twig, especially.
[b]Juli Wilcox[/b]
[b]Former Editor in Chief, NSN[/b]
 

by George McCarthy on Mon Mar 15, 2004 3:42 am
George McCarthy
Forum Contributor
Posts: 213
Joined: 4 Jan 2004
Location: England U.K.
A great capture made even better by the flowered twig.

George
 

by Tom Bentley on Mon Mar 15, 2004 10:32 am
Tom Bentley
Forum Contributor
Posts: 2615
Joined: 21 Aug 2003
Location: Greater Chicagoland, IL
Very nice shot. The light is beautiful.
[b]Comments welcomed!!



Tom Bentley
Schaumburg, IL

Website all new!!!
http://www.thomasbentley.com[/b]
 

Display posts from previous:  Sort by:  
18 posts | 

Powered by phpBB® Forum Software © phpBB Group