Peacock

[lhosphotography]

Hi,

Would love your thoughts on this image.
I havent done allot to it except a crop to make it more central and fiddled in curves a bit.
Does it need something else..? i didnt think so but thought i would get a second opinion or two.

[Marko]

Cool image! What an amazing bird.
To me the eye looks a bit soft so I'd try to sharpen it a wee bit without going overboard.

[Richard]

I agree with Marko here, great subject, Just needs a little bit of sharpening. You could also see if increasing the contrast helps it to pop some more...

[jjeling]

I like the composition here. Looks like some of the blues are a little blown out. Increasing the contrast might help, but I would be careful not to over due this. It is easily overdone. The blues really seem a little weird over here though and the body seems a little out of focus as Marko state. Could be my monitor though. Anyone else on this one?

[Mad Aussie]

I'm happy with this one but do agree that birds eye needs to be sharper. I'd be selectively sharpening that whole head if it were me.

Really nice shot though.

A few days ago we were out on big bike ride (77 kms in total) and we came around a bend to be faced with 6 peacocks, in pairs, on both sides of the road. None them gave us a display like this though!

[Bambi]

lovely catch!!! I agree with everyone else re: sharpening the head.


MA the peacocks were probably too busy looking at the colours of the bicycle apparel.

[Duane]

I could see this image in a frame on a wall somewhere. Very nice capture.

[Wicked Dark]

At the risk of sounding like a superior blowhard and not meaning to insult the OP who may be a veteran photographer, I find it interesting that everyone thinks the best way to solve the problems with the photo in post processing. Granted, the magenta cast might be solvable, but the real problem is focus. Either from lack of experience or planning the person behind the camera did not focus on the bird's eyes, instead letting the AF mode focus on the tail. A new user wouldn't necessarily know that the camera would work this way, but nine times out of ten it will. Understanding why and how to overcome this is the real lesson here, not selective sharpening. How can you sharpen out of focus pixels?

Instead, I offer this - compositionally this is a good photo. Peacocks in good light who will display for you are almost impossible to photograph badly. So, good instincts there. However, remember for next time that if you leave the camera in AF the sheer massiveness of that tail will overwhelm the system; forcing it to miss the rather small head and eyes of the bird which really need to be sharply in focus. Change to a single AF point or manual focus and make sure you pinpoint the head and eyes. If the tail is OOF, so what.

Anyway...I'm sorry if I come off as harsh, but I'd rather correct the source of the problem than try to mask its symptoms.

[Kawarthabob]

I'd have to agree with WD. The thing to do would be to focus on the head and eyes using one focal point or shoot in manual mode. otherwise good shot!

[Mad Aussie]

WD ... Several of us said focusing on the eye was the key to making the photo better.

The advice given here is sometimes to fix the photo in question (hence post precessing suggestions) or how to improve the photo when taken.
In this case the thread author asked what could be done about this photo now, suggesting post processing advice.
There are many, many threads here that go into a lot of depth about how to have made the photo better in the first place. Sometimes this is forthcoming without being asked for (which is fine in the Critiques section of course) and sometimes it's not.
Sometimes it's something we miss until something like yourself notices it and makes mention. That's how this works. Lots of opinion for the thread author to consider.

Without question, learning to use the auto focus points (selecting 1 only and having it on the eye) would be a good start to not having to sharpen later.

What do you think sharpening software is for if not to sharpen slightly blurring, out of focus pixels I wonder?
I know I can confidently sharpen that eye, selectively if I want, in pp.

The majenta? Well ... perhaps that's close to the colour of the birds feathers at this stage of it's cycle? I have no idea. I think the colour changes made in pp have lifted it too far though.