Ospreys in Flight

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jadewolf

jadewolf

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So, I woke up yesterday to find that the latest big SoCal rainstorm had stalled out for a few hours. Which, in turn, gave me a few hours to get down to Sepulveda Basin to try out the new lens some more.

Ended up getting these osprey shots. I can't quite decide on which one is best of the series, though.

And then there was this one... which is in that "close but no cigar" category...

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I had staked out this osprey for two hours, waiting for him to dive for a fish.

And unfortunately, when he finally did... he flew to a part of the pond that put a stand of reeds directly between me and the action. I shot through them anyway, but ended up with a bunch of blurry green foreground haze from the reeds. Really put post-processing to the test on it and managed to get the above end result. It isn't really up to the standards I've set for myself, but I was impressed at how much I could actually recover in post. Used a little mild color grading to reduce the green cast, then used Topaz DeNoise and Sharpen to do the rest. It's passable, but no good for prints. SO close, though.

In some sort of irony, the osprey missed his shot here too. Came up with empty claws. Better luck to us both next time, ha!
 
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jadewolf said:
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So, I woke up yesterday to find that the latest big SoCal rainstorm had stalled out for a few hours. Which, in turn, gave me a few hours to get down to Sepulveda Basin to try out the new lens some more.

Ended up getting these osprey shots. I can't quite decide on which one is best of the series, though.

And then there was this one... which is in that "close but no cigar" category...

View attachment 53138

I had staked out this osprey for two hours, waiting for him to dive for a fish.

And unfortunately, when he finally did... he flew to a part of the pond that put a stand of reeds directly between me and the action. I shot through them anyway, but ended up with a bunch of blurry green foreground haze from the reeds. Really put post-processing to the test on it and managed to get the above end result. It isn't really up to the standards I've set for myself, but I was impressed at how much I could actually recover in post. Used a little mild color grading to reduce the green cast, then used Topaz DeNoise and Sharpen to do the rest. It's passable, but no good for prints. SO close, though.

In some sort of irony, the osprey missed his shot here too. Came up with empty claws. Better luck to us both next time, ha!
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All great shots but #4 is my favorite!👍👍👍
 
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Last picture : I saw it before reading the text and my first idea was "How did she get such a background with the blur effect that is not the same in the upper quarter of the photo as in the rest (with an orientation of the traces not completely parallel / horizontal) ❔"
And that’s when I read the text.
#4 is my preferred one as well. Trying 16*9 format may be interested as well :)
 
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PhD69 said:
Last picture : I saw it before reading the text and my first idea was "How did she get such a background with the blur effect that is not the same in the upper quarter of the photo as in the rest (with an orientation of the traces not completely parallel / horizontal) ❔"
And that’s when I read the text.
#4 is my preferred one as well. Trying 16*9 format may be interested as well :)
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Yup, he was just inches off the surface of the water then. And at a different angle, so away from all the green & brown background reeds like the other shots.

And you know, I think you're onto something with the 16:9 crop...

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Yup, I like that better. Thanks for the suggestion!

Anjin San said:
I would print the last one myself…yeah, it’s not perfect due to the reeds but it’s still pretty darned good.
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I might give it a shot on a smaller print, just to see how it comes out. I have a feeling there's going to be too much artifacting from the sharpening passes, though. But hey, worth a shot!

And thank you! :D
 
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I think before I printed I would take the background exposure or clarity down a little…that would make the bird pop out a bit…take a look at Steve's latest video for details on how subtle adjustments there improve the shot.
 
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Anjin San said:
I think before I printed I would take the background exposure or clarity down a little…that would make the bird pop out a bit…take a look at Steve's latest video for details on how subtle adjustments there improve the shot.
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Thank you for the suggestions! I played around with it a little more tonight, including adjusting the background and also adding a little warmth back to the osprey (color grading for getting rid of the green/brown haze had made it look very fishbelly white).

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I'm definitely a little happier with these results, but I think it might still be too impacted by the haze; and the sharpening to clear that up ends up with it taking a big quality hit. It's so frustrating because the pose was pretty much dead on what I wanted, but those dang reeds just threw a real hitch in. But, honestly I'm surprised I got it this far in post!

I'm just gonna have to keep going back to stake him out until I finally get the shot I want. Oh darn, another day spent in the field. The horrors! ;)
 
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Overall, you did well considering how tough they are to photograph. It looks to me that some of the whites are blown in most of the shots, especially the top of the head. With the darkish BG, I'd dial in -0.3 exp comp, you can always pull the shadows up later.
As for the last shot, the color balance of the first version you posted looks a tad cyan while the second version looks too brownish to me. Somewhere in between might be better. I'd also pull up the shadows and add just a touch of contrast, maybe a little brightness.
 
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Warren D said:
Overall, you did well considering how tough they are to photograph. It looks to me that some of the whites are blown in most of the shots, especially the top of the head. With the darkish BG, I'd dial in -0.3 exp comp, you can always pull the shadows up later.
As for the last shot, the color balance of the first version you posted looks a tad cyan while the second version looks too brownish to me. Somewhere in between might be better. I'd also pull up the shadows and add just a touch of contrast, maybe a little brightness.
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Thanks! Good call about the whites, I'll have to keep that in mind when I'm shooting these guys next (hopefully he'll be out and about tomorrow).

Yeah, I can't get the color right on that last one. I'm not really happy with either version. The green-brown haze from the reeds I shot through was just so strong that even getting it to this point was a miracle. I think the original was just too far gone on this one to ever really get it where I want it. At this point, I'm just going to try to get a better shot to start with on the next round. Ah well! Can't save 'em all!
 
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jadewolf said:
Thanks! Good call about the whites, I'll have to keep that in mind when I'm shooting these guys next (hopefully he'll be out and about tomorrow).

Yeah, I can't get the color right on that last one. I'm not really happy with either version. The green-brown haze from the reeds I shot through was just so strong that even getting it to this point was a miracle. I think the original was just too far gone on this one to ever really get it where I want it. At this point, I'm just going to try to get a better shot to start with on the next round. Ah well! Can't save 'em all!
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I gave it a quick adjustment based on my comments, I can post it if you'd like.
 
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