Darter in Gavi River Backwaters, Kerala

[Prasanna Joshi]

Canon EOS 550D, Tamron 18-270 PZD @ 270mm
Exif: f/6.3, 1/320s, ISO400, Spot, 0 EC
Cropped, Resized, Smart-sharpened (CS5.1), Levels
Looking fwd to your feedback.
Thanks.
-prasanna

[Mrudul Godbole]

The perch is nice. Moving a bit more to the right would have got it more parallel to the sensor. A slight head turn towards you would have helped to get better eye contact. The image looks a bit underexposed. The bark and the part below the wings have lost details. Can you share the original image? Thanks for sharing.

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Prasanna,
Did you click in RAW or jpeg?

Since this is a crop, some more space at the left and top would have been better. The white balance needs to be tweaked. Can you tell us what white balance was set in your camera? Did you use any of the picture styles?

Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[Prasanna Joshi]

Thanks to both of you for your feedback. Really appreciate it.
Sabyasachi:
I took this in RAW+JPG mode... and I have deleted the RAW file because i didn't see the color cast with my untrained eye! :crying: This was shot in Auto WB in medium over-cast conditions. Using Cloudy or Shade may have helped? Do you see a slightly blue cast? Since I shoot RAW+JPG, i don't bother to change it much in on-field. Same applies to the Picture Style (Standard customized with +1 Saturation).
I know that one shouldn't delete the raw file, but since i am only starting out, i don't see that much worth in my snaps to keep it (disk-space saving). I usually start with the RAW only if i see a WB prob, or to pull out details from shadows (which also i missed in this one!). crop the image and save (over the OOC jpg). once the normal PP is done i delete the RAW and resize+sharpen for web/critique.

Mrudul:
Would have loved a slight head-turn towards me. But i guess it was getting a little agitated as we moved closer to it from our rowboat. i didn't want to disturb it further & told the boatman to divert. But, since it was a row-boat, it took some time to change direction during which the bird already took an elusive dip in the waters (to return to the same perch a few minutes after we had gone far enough)! :001_unsure:
let me try to see if i can pull out any details from the areas you have mentioned. I would have loved to share the original image, but it is only the original sized version of the one i have uploaded here.

Thanks again. Will remember the tips above and try to get it right the next time.

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Prasanna,
Just check the tail feathers and the colour cast is evident. Different monitors see differently, unless the monitors are colour corrected. I use a Spyder Pro 3 device to do the colour correction, however these are all expenses which I normally don't immediately suggest to beginners. There are some free calibration strips available on the net.

Better to shoot using Auto WB and while processing you can always tweak it a bit. No need to specifically set cloudy or shade etc. The White Balance information is just appended to the RAW file and you can change it later. However, when you shoot in Jpeg mode these informations are written into the file.

I understand that during the initial days the images are not likely to be good. However, I would suggest that just shoot in RAW. Shooting in RAW + Jpeg will give you less number of images in the card and slow down your speed of shooting as well. Get an external hard disk. I think a 2TB Sandisk is around 6k INR. 1TB will be much cheaper. So pick up one hard disk and start storing the RAWs. Ofcourse, I would suggest that check each image at 100% and see if there is lack of sharpness. If so, delete ruthlessly. That may result in retaining only a couple of images from one trip. Doesn't matter. If you set high standards for yourself, then you will achieve those.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[Prasanna Joshi]

Thanks a lot Sabyasachi for your suggestions. Cannot tell you how much i appreciate your taking time out for this.
Actually, realized the drawback u mentioned of RAW+JPG a week back and am now full time on RAW only.
My monitor (MacBook) needs calibration badly as I have checked with the color-strips. Also, u guessed it right, don't have the moolah to invest in the Spyder calibrator right now.
"Deleting ruthlessly" is what i need to start doing more rigorously. Will surely buy a 1TB HD for backing up my worth-keeping RAW files.
Thanks again. Looking fwd to a lot of good learning from IndiaWilds.
-prasanna