Practice, practice, practice: The more I photograph them the more I admire them. Have tried a couple with Colour efex pro to try and darken the sky but it looks a little false to me.

steve1oshea Loc: Reading, England

The more I photograph them the more I admire them.
Have tried a couple with Colour efex pro to try and darken the sky but it looks a little false to me.

(Download)

kpmac Loc: Ragley, La

Nice set. Maybe trying a smaller aperture such as f8 would help with bright skies.

Nalu Loc: Southern Arizona

Suggestion? Considering you are using Color Effects Pro, most likely you are using Photoshop. If you want to darken the sky a bit, try lowering the values with a curves adjustment adjustment, them mask out the adjustment on the bird. You could also do the same thing with a saturation adjustment, blue channel, and mask the bird. Just some thoughts. I am sure better Photoshop folks could make others.

Overexposed sky’s are one of the tough things about shooting birds, especially mid day with bright values. Try finding the same bird early in the AM or late afternoon and you might have more luck.

steve1oshea Loc: Reading, England

Nalu wrote:

Suggestion? Considering you are using Color Effec... (show quote)

Will do Nalu and many thanks.

steve1oshea Loc: Reading, England

kpmac wrote:

Nice set. Maybe trying a smaller aperture such as f8 would help with bright skies.

Thanks Kpmac

martinfisherphoto Loc: Lake Placid Florida

Steve if you have the complete Nik software package you can use Viveza and change the white balance. Under the Shadows Adjustment you will see (Warm) slide this slider back and forth too get the sky the color you want or you have a separate slider for the color Blue as well. Remember to use the Control Points so you only change color of the sky.. Hope this Helps.

birdpix Loc: South East Pennsylvania

You've given yourself an almost impossible task with this series. Not only is the sun high in the sky but you are shooting towards the sun so the bird is backlit. The only solution with these shots is to use an editing program that will allow you to lighten the bird and darken the sky. That is not impossible but is rarely fully satisfactory. You need to train the birds to cooperate and not fly with the sun at their back, LOL!

steve1oshea Loc: Reading, England

martinfisherphoto wrote:

Steve if you have the complete Nik software package you can use Viveza and change the white balance. Under the Shadows Adjustment you will see (Warm) slide this slider back and forth too get the sky the color you want or you have a separate slider for the color Blue as well. Remember to use the Control Points so you only change color of the sky.. Hope this Helps.

Thanks Martin. I'll try that.

steve1oshea Loc: Reading, England

birdpix wrote:

You've given yourself an almost impossible task with this series. Not only is the sun high in the sky but you are shooting towards the sun so the bird is backlit. The only solution with these shots is to use an editing program that will allow you to lighten the bird and darken the sky. That is not impossible but is rarely fully satisfactory. You need to train the birds to cooperate and not fly with the sun at their back, LOL!

Ha Ha I'll keep that in mind. Thanks for your comments.