More birds from Friday's outing

[wigz]

Some more shots from Friday that I hadn't got around to posting.

1. Rainbow Lorikeet. 1/1600 f/5.6 ISO 250


2. Willie Wagtail. 1/2000 f/5.6 ISO 640


3. Straw-necked Ibis. 1/2000 f/5.6 ISO 500

4. Little Friarbird. 1/200 f/5.6 ISO 360


5. Little Friarbird. Angle is really too high but at least it is out of the foliage.
`/`600 f/5.6 ISO 180

[Grumpy John]

Another lovely selection of birds there Alan. Are these from Tygum, or Eagleby?
I'm definitely bringing my Siggy 150-600 up north with me. I've checked out Tygum and Eagleby on Google maps and they're not too far from where I'll be staying, 45 minutes to an hour from what I can tell.

[Grumpy John]

Where we're staying is not too far from Amberley RAAF base, do you happen to know if they do tours?

[wigz]

Not of the base but I think they do tours of a museum on the base, or they used to. One Sunday a month and booking in advance and a bit of paperwork is required as it is actually on the base.

Looks like it might have changed https://www.raafamberleyheritage.gov.au/

There is an army air museum at Oakey just past Toowoomba which is worth a look.

[wigz]

Just to whet your appetite for one spot at Spicers Gap

https://www.ausph.com/forum/photohol...picers-gap-qld

https://www.ausph.com/forum/photohol...rufous-fantail

[Isac]

Lovely images and well presented Alan. The detail is superb and colours are super vivid. I don't mind the high up shots, that's where they sit and they have the look of being above all other creatures (including us). TFS.

[wigz]

Interesting. The lorikeet was processed in ACR using 'Adobe Colour' profile with no further contrast or saturation changes. Using 'Adobe Standard' looks similar. The Reds do look a little over-saturated perhaps, but the sky looks ok on my calibrated IPS argb display.

[Isac]

I have a completely different workflow to yours Alan, so if it all looks good to you then that's OK. The sky is mainly one colour, so have you got the hex number for it?. I thought my system was pretty spot on, but if it's way out then that may help me to get it right. Cheers.

[wigz]

That isn't my normal workflow Isac. I have had a closer look and the problem appears to be that a lot of the red and orange is out of gamut for sRGB. I've added a reprocessed version below..

[wigz]

Does this look better Isac. I reprocessed it using my normal workflow and reduced saturation although this didn't entirely fix the problem, The issue was that a lot of the red was out of gamut for sRGB and I hadn't noticed the colour shift when I exported it.

It still isn't quite correct as converting from Raw to sRGB makes it difficult to pull the reds back while maintaining the other colours. I'll have to try reducing saturation on the reds and oranges when I have a bit more time. I haven't struck this to this degree before. I think it's due to the early morning sun directly on those red/orange breast feathers

[Isac]

Hi Alan, those colours look a lot better. I had a play and came up with this BUT it's only my version and may not be to your liking. After much experimenting, I came up with a clear blue sky colour (adjustable of course) using hex # 96BFFF. I used 2 Color Fill Layers for blue feathers & sky, Smart Filter with Luminosity Mask for Shadows & Highlights and Hue/Saturation to decrease the reds and increase the yellows. If you want the PSD to see how the layers are constructed, just let me know and I can send via WeTransfer.

[wigz]

Was this taken from my original jpg Isac? If so that's quite impressive. I think the reds are still a little overdone but it looks much better.

I have reprocessed it from the raw, reducing saturation on red and orange and it is fairly close to yours, but with a little less saturation in the reds. My sky is a little darker than yours and I would leave it, as that is how it appears with the correct exposure for the bird. You have lifted the shadows a little which is also an improvement I hadn't bothered with.

I'm rather surprised how difficult it is to fit those reds into the sRGB colour space.

Thanks for taking the time to play with this.

[Isac]

I used the image you posted was what 845 x 1065 (101kb). As you know, when you see the lorikeets in the flesh, those red feathers are super vibrant and bright so I didn't change that too much. I did a bit of in-depth work on sky colouring because I kept seeing far too much cyan in images posted in various formats on the internet. It was just bugging me to see sky colours too saturated and having cyans that just aren't in a sky. If the sky needs colour correcting, I use a single colour (#96BFFF) or a gradient (#75abff - darker to #b7d3ff - lighter) for anything that shows the sky hitting the horizon.
It's all subjective and all good fun. I'll send you the PSD file and you'll see what I did - adjustment layers, masks and layer modes. The luminosity masks are under the Channels panel. Cheers.