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#18,122
Hi Jack.
Lots of really nice shots here recently, an interesting series of the waxwings.
I don’t know the answer to the best way, as for should you leave the warm colour, I think that comes down to the purpose of the shot and personal preference.
If the shot is supposed to be an accurate representation of the bird then adjust, if it is supposed to be an accurate representation of the scene then keep the warm tones. If it is purely for your pleasure then warm it up, cool it down, play until you are happy!

Cheers, Graham.

Jack Douglas said:
I have a question. What is the best way to adjust the white balance on shots such as my ice waxwings. I've tried temperature and clicking on a white patch on the bird. One of my earlier shots was taken just after sunrise. should I leave the warm coloration as is?

Jack
Click to expand...
 
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#18,123
Hi Jack, my first approach is to compare the photo with the image of the bird in my memory (and I have very good visual memory) - if the white was changed by the reflections from the environment I don't care much, it is haw the bird was looking. If you look few pages back at my Cockatoo - the WB was so fooled by the complex light, the bird was looking pale orange. It is not how I see it, and I had to correct the colors (I usually start with the temperature but many times it's more complex). It still has some tints (but they were present also in the live bird) but now it looks more like "white bird" .
 
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#18,124
ISv said:
Hi Jack, my first approach is to compare the photo with the image of the bird in my memory (and I have very good visual memory) - if the white was changed by the reflections from the environment I don't care much, it is haw the bird was looking. If you look few pages back at my Cockatoo - the WB was so fooled by the complex light, the bird was looking pale orange. It is not how I see it, and I had to correct the colors (I usually start with the temperature but many times it's more complex). It still has some tints (but they were present also in the live bird) but now it looks more like "white bird" .
Click to expand...

Thanks very much for this. Unfortunately i don't have visual memory at all and sometime reference material (books etc.) are not too accurate also. However, in my journey into photography I am at least now becoming more aware of casts so perhaps I will gain skill in this.

Jack
 
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#18,127
Jack, it is always like that, you rarely will shoot the same object in the same light. Here I will post few photos of my rarest bird - Leucistic Pacific Golden Plower. I choose this one because it is really exceptional (just search the net for such a Plower, at least last year there was no single shot available... There are many thousands of this bird around during the winter but leucistic - forget! The first photo was taken at ~12:00 p.m, thinly overcast day, slight adjustments to mach what I have seen. Four days later I went there to check on it (they are territorial and use to stay on the same place for long). It was ~7:30 in December morning and the sun was very low, no single cloud there. Completely different cast (tint, hue, temperature of the light). My first reaction was to change this to the "real" colors (and I have a variant like that). Returned back - to save the spirit of that morning (and any way, I already had the real colors). And what actually are the real colors - the same bird has different tint/hue in different lighting conditions... For common birds I don't bother to think that much (but I may adjust the colors if I think the photo is good enough...). I like your photos as they are, you may decrease the blue with the RAW curves for the last two but be careful - you may sit in even deeper mud:)!DSC_0717_DxO-1.jpgDSC_0925_DxO-1.jpgDSC_0987_DxO.jpg
 
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#18,130
Jack, looking at your "CR for the Humour" I was almost ready to say : "put a reference card next to the bird":D. Almost immediately I realize it will not work (and is not joke anymore, even if you have exceptionally friendly bird :)). Where exactly do you want to put that card? Look at the cast on the breast of the Plower in the third photo... I don't think you will get the same WB if you put the card in front of the breast, or behind of the tail of the bird... I'm thinking the Alan's advise - it makes a lot of sense (looking for the magic 18% gray), but I'm not sure it will work for so different light...
Any way we are here to learn between the fun, I found it very useful!
 
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#18,131
I tend not to enhance colours etc and prefer to go for the natural. I think the pros like Art Morris use Photoshop a lot to get dramatic effects. It's interesting reading the latest thread on the 1DXII replacement where real pro sports photographers have just written how much they have to crop, so we are not the only ones. I sometimes have felt that we were the unreasonable ones with our demands for cropping.
 
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