Chicken Shot - Colours don't quite seem right

[moveandfire]

Hi All,

First post after lurking for a while.

I'd appreciate some critique on the following shot please:



Model: NIKON D3000
Exposure: 0.017 sec (1/60)
Aperture: f/5.6
ISO Speed: 200
Exposure Bias: 0 EV
Focal Length: 55 mm
Lens: 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6

(In addition I had a CPL polarizing filter on the lens.)

I quite like the concept of the shot and the DoF, but can't place exactly what doesn't feel right about the colours.

I've had a good play around with it in Lightroom 3 and still keep coming back to pretty much what came out of the camera, yet still feels wrong. Messing around with the levels too much just seems to make it look over-processed.

The crop is another issue. I've got the rear half of another bird to the right, but if I remove it I feel the rest of the image becomes a bit unbalanced.

Any advice/criticism would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Ian

[Chip]

Pretty setting and photo.

To me, the colors seem a bit off because the chickens are a little underexposed. The birds are mostly in shade, while other parts of the frame are in the sun, which may have confused the meter if you were using matrix. Can you select just the chickens and lighten them with a levels adjustment?

On the crop, I see what you mean. Cropping between the two chickens on the right would help, but I agree it would then look a bit unbalanced.

My 2 cents.

And welcome to DPS.

[rengles]

I agree with Chip...I would lighten up the chickens, especially the main subject.

That's tricky crop...what if you made it a portrait, cropping between the 2 chickens on the right, and shaving off a bit on the left too?? just an idea

[wulf]

Your chicken, despite relatively bright colours, is being set against the green of the sunny field and the bright blue of the sky. It would have helped if the field were darker and the sun more on the chicken. Also, I think I would have tried taking the shot from a slightly higher angle so that the chicken was set more against the darkness of the hill.

The feathers could also benefit from being sharper. Given the aperture limitations of your lens, I might have tried stopping down a step or two (wide open lenses tend to be a touch softer) and using a faster shutter speed (55mm at 1/60s is in the zone where some of your shots are likely to suffer from mild camera shake). To compensate, you could push the ISO higher and / or use a touch of flash. Diffused, low-power flash might be the best option, as this would also make the foreground relatively brighter, limiting the contrast problem outlined above.

Wulf

[moveandfire]

Thanks for the feedback guys.

I've tried to take the suggestions onboard and edited the original RAW image which is up here:



Used Lightroom again to drop the background about 1.5 stops in exposure, the chickens up just over 1 and boosted their saturation a bit. Cropped it too as suggested and doesn't look too bad as a slightly wide portrait.

Next time I'm up near the farm with decent weather I'll try to give the shot another go with the suggestions from Wulf. I do have a habit of cranking the aperture wide open and not considering the point you made about the sharpness loss at that extreme end. Bit weary of using the flash around the chickens as I have no idea if they would be OK with it.

[wulf]

Definitely much improved.

Wulf

ps. you can include revised versions as part of the discussion - the ONE picture rule means we start discussing one picture, not that further images can't be added (when appropriate) later on

[Chip]

I agree - much better.

In a similar situation in the future, you could also try spot metering on the main subject. (Side note: I have trouble spot metering when the main subject is different colors, such as a brown and white bird - my exposure can turn out quite differently if I pick a light or dark place on the bird for spot metering.)

Spot metering won't balance out the exposure of the whole scene, but it can be useful.

[moveandfire]

Originally Posted by wulf

Definitely much improved.

Wulf

ps. you can include revised versions as part of the discussion - the ONE picture rule means we start discussing one picture, not that further images can't be added (when appropriate) later on

Thanks for pointing that out, wasn't entirely too sure about the one picture rule so thought I'd play it safe. Sorted now.

I'm happier with the last edit but I agree that better exposure at the time of shooting would have greatly improved it, plus post processing can be a bit limited.

Thanks for the advice guys. This has given me a fair few ideas and things to consider next time I'm out shooting such subjects.