[LRflex] Re: Black Level Comparisons

  • From: William Abbott <wbabbott3@xxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: leicareflex@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Sat, 9 Jun 2007 19:46:24 -0700

David,

When I was a kid in Florida we had huge flocks of redwing black birds  
all over everywhere so I became accustomed to them and their  
habitats, mostly marshy areas if I remember correctly, and habits. I  
completely understand your timing problems.

All the best,

Bill


On Jun 9, 2007, at 3:20 PM, David Young wrote:

At 09/06/2007, you wrote:
> David,
>
> I have a very untidy mind, and what jumped into it when I saw the two
> shots of the female Red Winged Blackbird was:
>
> "Holy cow, if Mother Nature had wanted the lower half of that bird to
> be darker, she would have made it darker over the eons. There must be
> some evolutionary benefit to the plain vanilla, non-Black Level
> Slider look. Better camouflage?"
>
> Quite a nice looking little bird though; they always seem to perch on
> swaying things down here so one in a firm stance is hard to find. She
> looks to be on a none too steady cat tail.
>
> Re the SilkyPix Black Level slider: Adobe Lightroom 1.0 has a
> functionally similar (if not identical) "Blacks" slider control.


Hi Bill!

Glad to know that Lightroom has copied the "Blacks" slider.  Even
without seeing it, I'd be pretty sure it does the same thing, as
there are only so many ways you can alter a photo.  I just prefer the
slider, to using the "curves" control in PS  ... though SP has one of
those, too, if you wish to use it.

Sorry my use of the BL control made the bird seem unnatural to
you.  In fact, what I was attempting was to bring the image of the
bird back to what I saw.  Really flat lighting (heavy overcast) makes
a huge difference between what we see and what we photograph.

I find that many shots need a little help; and too many people do it
with the contrast control, thus blowing their hightlights.

As for the perch .. it was, indeed, precarious.   In the end, I shot,
over an hour, perhaps 30 frames of several females - and only about 3
or 4  were truly, tack sharp.  The breeze made all the difference,
for you'd focus, and by the time my brain said "fire", and I
did,  the breeze had moved the bird a fraction of an inch.  Not a
lot, but enough to make the shot look a tiny bit soft.

I was pleased that the shot I liked the most (the "Featured Photo" at
http://www3.telus.net/~telyt/) was one of the few which was razor sharp!

Thanks for taking the time to look.  :-)

Cheers!

---

David Young,
Logan Lake, CANADA

Wildlife Photographs: http://www.telyt.com/
Personal Web-pages: http://www3.telus.net/~telyt
Stock Photography at: http://tinyurl.com/2amll4

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