Hello Everyone,
As I presume many other members are, I am preparing my entries for the Australian Bird Photographer of the Year competition and I have been processing this image of an Australian Pelican. Attached is the unprocessed and the processed versions. I decided to erase the glistening water spots in the background thinking that maybe they are distracting, or do any of you see this as a feature??? I would love to hear some better photographers opinions.
Thanks,
Anna
PS: I use Photoshop CC for my processing

Hi Anna,

I prefer the version without the water spot highlights. BUT I would draw your attention to this item in the FAQ for the competition: https://www.birdlifephotoaward.org.au/faqs#image-manipulation

Rob

Hi Anna,

I also prefer the processed version without the highlights reflected off the water but Rob has raised an important issue for photographers preparing images for the 'big' comp. My reading of the rules is that this kind of alteration to the image would not be acceptable.

On a more general note, I notice that your pelicans are backlit, which can be OK, but in this case it looks like the rim light around the birds has been blown out in the white areas. I have not checked this but you should do so by looking at the RGB numbers in the brightest white areas during RAW adjustment. Similarly, the blackest areas of plumage show very little detail and I suspect the blacks are 'blocked up'. These two problems go hand-in-hand when one is trying to photograph black and white birds in direct sunlight or backlit as in your image. It takes some skill to get the right exposure and then adjust the blacks and whites during RAW adjustment to recover some of feather detail.

I love the pose of the birds but you have some difficult technical challenges caused by the lighting.

Good luck in the comp, I hope you give the other competitors a run for their money. Ian

Hi Guys,
For a newbie to competitions and the strict rules that apply, how would one decide when some manipulation is enough and then the next click of the slider takes you into disqualification?
Ian alludes to the fact that Anna's post processing may be past the line in the sand yet dodging and burning and highlight adjustments are allowed, yet both of those would, I think, deal with the over-exposed highlights from the water?
Please remember, I know nothing of competitions and I'm running as quickly as my legs will carry me to catch up on post processing techniques AND I am certainly not questioning any of the advice given, just a little confused as to where the boundaries are?

Thanks for taking the time Guys and I certainly hope that this hasn't opened a can of worms, because no-one more than me would love to see our new competition become a world wide success. . . .
Bruce

Hi Bruce and all others reading this who may be intending to enter.

The best way to think about this is the principle stated in the rules for the competition:

" Only manipulation where the integrity of the original subject and scene that was photographed is maintained, is allowed. Images that have been manipulated by the addition, removal or alteration (for example by painting over, cloning or blurring) of anything in the original subject and scene that were photographed are not acceptable."

In other words, if the photo no longer represents the original scene photographed, then it can't be entered. Some judgement is inevitably required. In the case of the highlights on the water being cloned out, I would consider this departing from the original scene as those highlights were present. If, on the other hand, the highlights had been burnt in to make them less obvious, but still present, then the photo would likely be accepted as an accurate portrayal of the original scene. However, in this case, I think it would be quite difficult to burn them in without making the photo look a bit 'odd' - just my personal view though.

Note that for practical reasons however, individual advice on photos will not be provided. I'm simply using Anna's photos as an example in this instance to illustrate the intent of the rules.

Hope that helps.

I think other comments have dealt with the 'allowability' of this image and its processing. It is certainly a challenging image to get right in post processing because I think too many highlights have been irretrievably lost.

I think the pose of this photo is good and takes advantage of the relative positions of the birds quite nicely. My personal preference would be to have both birds in focus and I find the slightly out of focus bird to be distracting as the point of the composition is the interplay between the two opposing poses. My eyes keep wanting to see both birds sharp - but this is a matter of taste. Can I also suggest you look at your white balance - the water looks a little too cyan to me; but perhaps it is accurate given the very bright light in the scene.

You could try playing around with black and white and see what it looks like with different contrast settings. In this case you could only enter it as a Creative image. My reading of the Creative category is that more post processing (including cloning out the sun spots) is allowed, including for colour images.

Simon