Gull at Dusk

New Jersey sunset over the Barnegat Bay. No processing beyond slight

contrast being added.

Great colors and composition.  I like it. 

You said you added contrast.  Did you use the unsharp mask filter to do that?  The reason I ask is there is a very noticeable light halo around the bird.  Unsharp mask is a great way to increase local contrast, but when used with some image types - such as silhouettes -  you have a high probability of generating the kind of halo effect you see in this one.

Larry

Hi Larry, Thanks for the input. The halo is actually the sun and I left it there as part of the photo. Do you think that it is too distracting?

Joesph

I won't say it's distracting.  Its just that I have learned to be on the lookout for "unwanted halos" in my own photos, and I guess it carries over when examining someone else's work as well. 

Just for the record, the method of increasing contrast that I was referring to earlier is to use unsharp mask on an image with the following settings: amount = 20%, radius = 60 pixels, threshold = 0 levels.  With these settings, the overall contrast of your image will be greatly improved, and you will be amazed at how much better it makes most images look. However, if you are going to use this procedure, there are two things you have to be careful of.  One is the "halos" previously mentioned, and the other is this method expands the image's histogram on the horizontal axis and as a result, it can cause you to blow out highlights if you are already pushing the envelope on exposure.

One last caveat: this method of increasing contrast is not a substitute for the final sharpening you will need to do when you have finished processing your image.  And if you are going to use it, I would suggest you process the image to remove noise first and then use this routine as a second step in your work flow.  Personally, I prefer to convert the image to lab mode and apply it to the luminance channel only.  At the same time, I find it is helpful to apply a Gaussian blur with a radius of 2 pixels to both A and B color channels.  I then convert back to RGB mode and do what ever other processing I need to do.

Larry

Best regards Joseph!

PDE

Thanks Bill, Larry and Pierre, I appreciate the feedback.

like♥♥♥

screening out the brightest bit of the sky and water with the bird and pole!  "Not quite clever enough, however," as they say in the movies.  You've still lost something from overexposure.  There is a scallop-shaped boundary around the bird.  The boundary comes from overloading of the red and perhaps green channels within it.  You might be able to darken the image or use recovery to fix it if you have a raw file.  Very dramatic image, by the way.  best, j

Hi Jaime, I did not shoot this as a RAW file. This was only a JPEG. I normally shoot in RAW but this photo was actually taken while I was teaching a family member on how to take silhouettes.

Now some may call me a purist but I do very little post processing work on my photos. I typically add a little contrast or shadow, sometimes play with the white balance a bit but basically what you see is what you get. It isn't for noble reasons, I don't own Photoshop and only use Canon's program to touch up photos. Someone asked me why I shoot RAW at all then? Aside from the increased detail my photography is chiefly UW photography and the ability to adjust white balance after the fact can be critical underwater with such severe blues.

I only mention this because while I LOVE being critiqued as it is a great way to improve I must confess that I wouldn't even begin to know how to make those changes in Photoshop.

I certainly approve of trying to be a purist, but you have to start when you take the picture.  The histogram would have shown you that red was blown out.  The things I suggested are entirely appropriate for a purist, I believe.  best, j

Hi Jaime, I am looking at the histogram now and the reds don't seem that blown out and at the time I wasn't really paying attention as I was teaching about silhouettes. Remember I am not a purist by design, more of by accident in that I don't have the software.

That being said I will take this one down and tinker with it a little more in the Canon program and see if I can't wrangle them under control. I appreciate your feedback here, sometimes we don't see our work the way that others see it.

everywhere in that scalloped area, the red channel is pretty much pegged at 255.  there's a little variation around an average, but it's always pretty close to 255.  to fix it without a raw, what you would do is to try to make the boundary less prominent.  you could do that with some clever blurring, but it will still look funny, i'm afraid.  what would work better is to lighten up the whole image widen the border.  best, j

Hi Jaime, Sounds complicated. I am afraid that I am more into the photography than into photoshop. The program I use doesn't really have that blurring effect that you are referring to (I looked it up).

I greatly appreciate the ideas and input and will spend some time trying to get the blown out colors under control. Feedback is ALWAYS a good thing.

I teach at a school that has photography maybe I will take the picture into one of the photoshop teachers, I am sure they can fix and probably create a whole new image since they are basically graphic artists and not photographers LOL.

I will revisit this site in the future and try to play with another angle. its from a dock so maybe I will actually put my wetsuit on, put my camera in its housing, and try shooting this from water level up at the bird from a variety of angles. This will most assuredly be a unique perspective and I can probably get rid of some of that glow that is a result of the sun being directly behind the bird.

don't pay too much attention to me.  The real message is to worry more about overexposure.  I understand that this picture isn't particularly important to you.  best, j

Hi Jaime, Thanks. They are all important to me, I just wasn't so much focused on that aspect of this photo when I took it. I was more worried about getting a strong silhouette.

Thanks for all the advice and input.

Joe

Beautiful silhouette shot.

Thank you for your remarks on one of my photos.

Regards!

Thanks Lester for the compliment. You are welcome. I never comment on anything to get a comment in return, just wanted you to know what a wonderful photographt you had there. Thanks again Lester.