"Shedding Some Light"
I don't want to continue to hijack the other "Gadwall" thread on this.
I honestly don't know what the true color of those legs/feet were on that bird b/c I never paid that much attention to them while it was in my possession.
However what I do want to show folks by this post is the challenge it is with the lighting, or "White Balance" as Rubberhead would have me say, is when photographing birds where things are set up at the shop. The following two photos come from the exact same RAW file. One is straight out of my camera and the other has been corrected using Lightroom, with other minor tweaks in (yep you guessed it) PHOTOSHOP! To be honest I could do this in the camera if I felt like messing with the settings but I'd need to freshen up on my understanding of my camera and it's settings to do so. It's just as easy and if not quicker for me to do it using the programs I listed above. Now this is with my camera! The other "Gadwall" photo was taken with an iPhone 4 or 4s if I'm not mistaken. I can't explain it all b/c I honestly don't know how. I just know what's going on in my mind with the images and can fix it if I felt like spending the time. But I didn't take that photo and to be honest I really don't care. What matters more to me is if the customer is happy with the actual product and if not then I'll make damn sure something is done about it. (Unless your dog or cat attacks the end product and it ends up in a pile of feathers. Then there's not much that can be done other than to get another bird and start over. Word to the wise! Take good care of your mounts.)
So here's the first RAW file example of the exact same file as the next one below it:
And this is the example of the exact same file above that has been corrected using the software mentioned above:
This is what Rubberhead would say is a White Balance correction. I call it mumbo-jumbo but at least now you can get a better idea what I was referring to with the color casts by the lighting from the "studio lighting". God only knows what an iPhone does with all that mumbo-jumbo.
I don't usually take photos anymore of all the birds b/c I simply just don't have the time. Shane has an old Canon 20D which does a pretty darn good job and for the most part he takes photos of the birds now days. For simplicity and ease of sharing he will a lot of time just use his iPhone. I will say that he doesn't spend a whole lot of time "editing" photos simply b/c he doesn't have the time and he doesn't know the extent of what I know how to do with the above mentioned programs. But to be honest I don't want him to selfishly if I have birds I want done I'd rather him focus on that than taking pictures. The photos became something that folks were requesting more and more. Now with social media it's almost a necessary evil. He doesn't spend a whole lot of time on the forums or on Social Media either.
Anyway I've spent enough time on this and rambled on enough. Hope it helps explain things and I hope maybe it's useful or sheds some light on things.
As an added bonus I wasn't being the usual dick head about things
If my grammar sucks or there's grammatical errors then sue me!
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