I am trying (very)

[Daisy M]

IMG_8241 (2) by David Miller, on Flickr
So my first experiment in altering my photos post taking. Took this through my house window, pouring with rain. Cropped out a large rain spot which was on the right, what else would you suggest I do, or is the photo not worth bothering with? Dave

[Tigger]

Re: I am trying (very)

Shot through glass and rain you did well, but to me the bird looks soft ?

[John Liddle]

Re: I am trying (very)

Shot through glass and rain you did well, but to me the bird looks soft ?

I agree, you got a reasonable shot from a difficult situation, Ian is right regarding the softness, but I am not sure there is any remedy for that (other than to have the window open next time). Keep at it!

[Daisy M]

Re: I am trying (very)

John, just seen you are from Blackwell, moved up here from Nailsea, where I lived for 20 odd years. How do you both mean " a bit soft" ? Not got the hang of the jargon yet. Dave

[digiman]

Re: I am trying (very)

Nicely composed image. It is a bit soft, but, as John says, through glass in the rain, may be as good as you'd get. Did you use a tripod? If you are trying post processing, have you given sharpening a try?

None the less, a good effort,

Garry

[ColytonJohn]

Re: I am trying (very)

Yes it's a bit soft and the eye is missing a catchlight but I don't think it's reasonable to be overly critical of the technical or artistic merits of this but applaud that a photograph has been greatly improved by a small amount of processing. Well done and welcome to the dark side

Cheers,
John

PS You may find a bit of sharpening overcomes the softness and catchlights can be introduced using the Adjustment Brush in Lightroom (there's probably an equivalent in DPP)

[Dave61]

Re: I am trying (very)

Nice first go David, as far as I know it might be better if you try F/8 on some birds, just to help on getting detail. You did good

[Tigger]

Re: I am trying (very)

soft as in out of focus

[digiman]

Re: I am trying (very)

soft as in out of focus

Yeah, not much can be done PP about that

[supergeeman]

Re: I am trying (very)

That's a nicely composed shot, it looks as though it's fairly sharp on the plant, perhaps that's where the camera af locked onto? But for shooting through glass, it's a winner in my eyes.

Sent from my SM-N9005 using Tapatalk

[Daisy M]

Re: I am trying (very)

Thanks all, I will keep trying.

[digiman]

Re: I am trying (very)

Looking through your flickr, there are other bird shots on there which are really good. I hate to say it, but I actually prefer the unedited version of this shot on flickr too!

[Daisy M]

Re: I am trying (very)

Thanks digiman, again they were all taken through the window, but no rain.

[the black fox]

Re: I am trying (very)

A super attempt ,I would love to know if this was taken using a single point focus or multi point ( I suspect the latter) ideally birds should have the focus point on or near the eye ,hence single point .i will have a look at the exif once I go on the puter but the dark background suggests a slow shutter speed or high ISO either of which will induce softness .
Some of us make bird photography look easy rest assured it's not and getting the right combination of elements to work together takes practice lots of practise.
As to your what else can I do ,try a square crop removing a lot of dead space on the right and giving the bird something to look into ,have a play with your colour balance as it looks to yellow ,once that's right play with saturation .you will know yourself once it looks right as it will pop out at you .yes it involves work and it changing the image but it's fun an better than watching t.v

[Parsen66]

Re: I am trying (very)

That's a nicely composed shot, it looks as though it's fairly sharp on the plant, perhaps that's where the camera af locked onto? But for shooting through glass, it's a winner in my eyes.

Sent from my SM-N9005 using Tapatalk

Yes the plant looks sharper. Worth trying to sharpen it but will never be a sharp as it could be. Nicely composed with the crop