Too much contrast for Brown Pelican in flight

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bajadreamer

bajadreamer

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After I completed processing this shot, I was taken with the amount of contrast. I did indeed bring up the contrast in PS (up to 10/100) but also selectively darkened the ocean and brightened the bird. I also took down the magenta and blue saturation on the bird as there was a color cast present. All of this has contributed to the contrast of the Pelican against the Ocean. Too much? How about the color cast? This was taken mid morning on a bright cloudy day.
Brown-Pelican-La-Jolla.jpg
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I think it looks great! It would be interesting to see the RAW image as a compare, but it doesn't jump out to me as being too much. I'm an amateur's amateur so take whatever I say with a grain of salt.
 
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Thank you for looking. Here is a JPEG conversion with no editing other than that embedded in DPP. Shot with EC of 0, ISO 1000, SS 1/1250, F/7.1 with a Canon R5.
Brown Pelican RAW to JPEG.JPG
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I think you did a great job with it. The pelican looks really, really good. If anything, maybe darken the water a bit so it isn't so pronounced. We can spend all day messing with the background. I've printed things I've loved, only to continue to mess with it.
 
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Wahfreak said:
I think it looks good. Did you capture this right after the pelican had it's morning bran and coffee?? I would say try to spot remove the discharge!
Nice shot!
Click to expand...
Actually, I took a burst of images of this bird. This was the only one that showed "ballast removal". This spot, Goldfish Point in La Jolla, CA, has literally hundreds of semi tame Brown Pelicans. Shortly after sunrise, the birds fly in from the west against the sun (although this shot was in the shadow of the point), offering you many opportunities for BIF shots. In both flight and static shots, you do not have watch the pelicans very long before they do something interesting or even humorous. I have a whole series of these shots.
 
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To me the processed image looks too processed, with too much contrast and sharpening. Personally I would tone that down quite a bit. Lift the shadows, maybe change the white balance and selectively desaturate the water, and aim for a more convincingly natural look. But those are just my personal preferences!
 
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The work you did on the pelican looks fine. It's the highlights and the color cast of the ocean that is a bit distracting. So, I'd see what can be done with the ocean and leave the pelican alone.
 
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