White Ibis

Gallery: AvianPosted January 24, 201267 views4 comments

Hello, all!

I took this White Ibis picture on a recent trip to the west coast of Florida. I think I was lying down in the grass when it was taken, and so shooting at a slight upwards angle.
I spent quite awhile trying to recover some detail from the Ibis's back, but I'm still not sure about it...do the whites seem okay? I really liked the out of focus flowers and grass in front of the bird, and the low perspective. Please view large if possible.

Nikon D200, f/6.3, 1/320, ISO 400, 300mm, handheld

All comments and critiques appreciated, and thanks in advance!
Jaymes

Comments

4 comments

Comment posted by Ron Bielefeld on January 24, 2012 at 5:21 PM

Jaymes, to me there is plenty of detail in the bird's back area. Actually the whites are looking a bit gray to my eye so I might bring them up a bit. The perspective is interesting, but for me there is too much OOF area in front of the bird for my taste. It looks like a wall in front of the bird. If this were mine, a somewhat higher angle might have been my choice. Again, just my taste and I am sure others will like this look.

Registered on December 6, 2008, 360 Posts, 7132 Comments

Comment posted by Keith Bauer on January 24, 2012 at 6:17 PM

Hi Jaymes. Interesting angle on the Ibis. Your handling of the whites looks OK, but as Ron noted, maybe a touch too far as there is a color shift on the back. My first reaction to the image was the amount of OOF foreground. I'd play with cutting that down by at least half if this were mine. The bright OOF highlights in the back are unfortunate in their placement as they tend to compete with the subject. Keep 'em coming. Nice work getting a different kind of image.

Registered on November 20, 2003, 458 Posts, 4836 Comments

Comment posted by Brian Gatlin on January 24, 2012 at 9:25 PM

Jaymes, I agree with the previous comments, and will add that I like the flower heads that are protruding from the grass around the bird. What method are you using to try to retrieve detail in the whites? These are definitely on the gray side--with the exception of a thin line of pixels right along the edge of the bird which are probably brighter due to sharpening, a threshold layer shows very few pixels on the bird that are above about 230.

Registered on March 21, 2009, 202 Posts, 4187 Comments

Comment posted by Jaymes Dempsey on January 27, 2012 at 3:10 PM

Thanks for the comments. all! I see what you mean about too much foreground...I'm thinking about cropping so that the image is in horizontal format.
I also understand about the whites...Brian, I started with the recovery slider in camera raw, before going to elements and using several layers to selectively darken the image with levels. I guess I went a bit too far...I wasn't really sure what other methods to use, as I am not very skilled with elements...

Registered on June 28, 2010, 47 Posts, 590 Comments