Steve Cole
About the Image(s)
I know and hope it is bit early for the actual snow but after walking through the local big box stores seeing all the Christmas decorations and toy lands everywhere perhaps it is a bit appropriate to share this photo. I used this photo on holiday notes I sent to our close friends and family last year.
This handsome fellow along with many of his family and rivals visit my bird feeders all year long but it is special when the snow arrives for there are at least eight couples at my two bird feeder stations. It so much a “fun-photo-capture time of year”. May you all have a wonderful upcoming Holiday Season. Fujifilm XT5, 100-400mm lens at 400mm (600mm full frame), f7.1, 1/250 second, ISO 500, Handheld. Processed in LR with basic sliders and Printed on Red River Polar Glossy Note Cards.
This round’s discussion is now closed!
8 comments posted
The one thing I might play with here is to try to make the eye stand out more, it gets lost in the black mask. I used a really tiny brush and brushed along the highlight lines that are present for a mask, and increased the exposure of those lines about 1 stop (maybe that was a bit much but it shows the effect). I think it helps define the eye. While I was at it I tried increasing the overall exposure about 1/3 stop as well.
I love this image. What a great card it made. We have cardinals here in AZ but my Christmas Cardinal would be on a cactus... not quite the same.   Posted: 11/15/2024 02:06:32
  Posted: 11/18/2024 18:07:00
In general, what I've found is if there are some natural highlights already existing, I can get decent results by making them more visible. If there aren't any and I try to create some, I rarely am happy with the results.   Posted: 11/19/2024 18:09:58
In the UK, Winter arrived this week - in north Wales/N England and most of higher ground of Scotland (I live southern England now!). Our daughter & husband had a great walk in snow in the north Wales hills yesterday - lucky them!   Posted: 11/20/2024 17:29:12