Stanley Selkow  


Wild Turkey by Stanley Selkow

May 2021 - Wild Turkey

About the Image(s)

A couple of weeks ago I was sitting in my study on Cape Cod, MA, USA, when this male turkey walked outside my window strutting his stuff (was he dissing me, the male of the house?). I love the different colors and textures of all the different kinds of feathers, and his wrinkled face and head. Aside from, as always, seeking criticism/suggestions of the picture, my main concern is that the feathers all seem almost like solid shingles (they lack the softness I associate with feathers). If I didn't know better, I'd suspect it was overly heavily Photoshopped.
Adjustments in Photoshop were global (ACR) to white balance with slight cropping.
The camera was a handheld Canon EOS R5, with a canon RF 70-200mm L lens, set at 200mm. Exposure 1/200 sec at f3.2, ISO 250.


This round’s discussion is now closed!
5 comments posted




 
Hi Stanley, I took the challenge to address the feathers. I only use LR 4 (a true classic haha). This is what I did: presence clarity -55, noise reduction luminance +35, yellow saturation -35 luminance -55, green saturation -35 luminance -35, orange saturation +18 luminance -12, aqua hue +7 saturation + 14 luminance -8.
I don't know how much time everyone spends studying the histogram of their images before diving in to edit, but it can be incredibly useful. Your submission is a great example of both the independent nature of color and the dependent nature of color.
So, I guess the question is, do the feathers look more feather-like?   Posted: 05/04/2021 01:33:38
Comment Image



Sophia Schade   Sophia Schade
(Group 5)
Love the photo.. since we don't have the original I don't know if you have more room in the front....I wish you had more room in the front for the turkey to walk... I like Steve's adjustments. The only change I have is make the background a bit darker.   Posted: 05/05/2021 18:39:58



Larry Treadwell   Larry Treadwell
(Groups 36 & 67)
Hi Stanley.
You have captured a fine image of a male turkey. I think I can offer some clarity as to why the feathers look like shingles.

First you need to understand how the camera's meter works. The meter tries to make the overall tonal quality of the image equal 18% great. (Look at Ansel Adams zone system to see what the camera is doing) You had your camera sensor pinned on the center mass of the turkey which is dark, so the camera opened up to compensate. This washed out the background (I'll bet the background was not that bright when you took the picture) In turn, this washed out those light colored feathers and stripped their colors. You lost the shadows and color and thus were left with only structure showing. I tried to work some editing magic with the image, but the lack of pixels due to the small size did not give me much to work with.

This is clearly not your original (because the almost square crop) so if you have the original and it you shot it in RAW and were willing to send it to me, I might be able to do something to it. Basically,
Steve is on the right track by reducing clarity, luminance, texture and local sharpening. Decreasing the Black point will add shadows and also soften the feathers.

I also feel Sophia is on the right track by increasing space to the left of the bird a nd giving it some room to walk into.   Posted: 05/08/2021 17:45:26
 
Larry may be correct about the change of the contrast owing to the shift of the overall brightness. But I do suggest that you look out for another turkey and study it with your eyes. You might even use a binoculars to study its feathers. Perhaps your local turkeys do grow their feathers in a way that look not soft. Calibrate yourself so that when you edit it you do make it look like nature and not the way you wished nature had done it.

  Posted: 05/16/2021 11:21:10



 
OK, a delayed reply to everybody (the delay was inconsiderate, sorry):
I can't post any of my pictures from that day because they're too fat - too many pixels. I agree with Sophie that you want space in front of a bird for the bird to move into.
A closer look (in response to Larry) about the shingle look is that looking at all the originals from that day there was a deep shadow under all the feathers in all the pictures. So if I would have raised the exposure in the capture, or pulled pixels from the shadows in LR (I don't know why they call it "Classic" when Steve's LR 4 is the true classic) that would have made the feathers seem more feathery.   Posted: 05/16/2021 17:25:17