What I'm noticing from watching these videos is that the real challenge isn't knowing HOW to edit, it's knowing WHAT to edit. Your ability to look at a photo and decide what needs to be done is where the real skill lies. I will look at a photo and not know what's wrong with it or what I should do with it, but you can easily pick out 12 different areas that could be improved. It's your ability to "see" that's so good.
Hi Adam, you are making a good point. That's why I always try to explain what I will do before I do it. Having this strategy and seeing what should be done, is almost the most important as you say. Knowing how is important, too, but if you don't know what to change it doesn't help you much.
OMG! i take photos for 10 years now (only as a hobby), but i never knew about this overexpose trick. you should sell this tip for money, it's worth gold.
You are a pro. You reminded me of a time when only professional retouchers knew how to retouch pictures. I used to work in advertising agencies and we would work with these pros after we get the shots from the photographer after a shoot. That was even before Illustrator and Photoshop became popular. The most professional software back then was Quantel. Is amazing how times have changed.😀
Thank you so much for the awesome tips, Jan! Your edit of my pic is just lovely! As a newbie to Photoshop, the liquifying tool is something I would have never thought of using on a bird pic, but it totally balanced the perch out with the bird. I also had a lot of trouble with that rich orange color in this series of shots, but I understand how to correct that now. Thank you, again, for sharing your wisdom with us. I am definitely a better photographer because of your videos...😊
Thanks for sending me your image Cindy and I am happy to hear that I could give you some pointers. I will send you my PSD file, so you can see all the layers etc.
Thank you Jan! Less than three minutes into your video and ETTR finally clicked. I was actually wondering where all that darn noise was coming from with shots in low ISO. I am checking all my photos' histograms now and, "Oh, how interesting" LOL, the ones with gaps to the right are the ones I've never been happy with. I have to laugh at myself! I'm tempted to throw them all out and only keep the ones with decent histograms, which, are also my favorite keepers! I am so happy I found your channel!
Glad it was helpful! You can always just adjust the histogram when editing as well. Personally I think our eyes prefer to see brighter images rather than dark :)
Hello jan, all your video tutorials are awesome.. Can you please make a video on how to use flash to freeze the motion of the subject and how to use multiple flash..
@@jan_wegener I tried to search similar video on UA-cam. But couldn't find a good one which can really help.. So I requested to someone who is really very good at it ! ☺️☺️
Hey Jan, Really enjoying this series. can you please let us know what is the keyboard that you are using, plus modifications, to process your images? Bruce.
I am using a Corsair K99. The short cut I use are assigned in Photoshop. If you look at your copy of the Masterclass, you will find a list with all my shortcuts at around 12:52 into the video
Dear Jan the yours are the best video in the web on bird photography and the last two are very beautiful and useful as usual.. regarding the editing I have some doubts regarding the owl, the result is very beautiful but in my opinion the Great grey owl is a little too dark in the upper part. All the best Antonio
Many thanks! You mean kinda the shoulders on the wing? Good point. I could pull some of the contrast back. I looked at many photos of them, but you almost never see those parts in a flight shot. That's the thing about editing. A set of fresh eyes always helps alot. If you look at an images for hours, you can get lost in it
Hi, you have fantastic material to watch, many thanks for sharing! I have a question about your Custom Raw Prosets, can I run them using a DNG format, or it has to be RAW only
Thank you Jan, I love these videos! So many non-obvious tips like using liquify to make the branch a bit smaller, or stretching the lower part of the photo in the last video! I currently use Affinity Photo for my editing and I'm happy with it. Do you think that using Photoshop is needed to make the most of the Masterclass video? Thanks!
Yes I’m trying to build on some special tips and tricks wherever I can. I haven’t used affinity photo, so I am not entirely sure what it offers. In my Masterclass I am mainly in photoshop, similar to these videos, but much slower and step by step. How much of what you see here is transferable?
@@jan_wegener From all the tools you used here I'm only not familiar with Nik Color Efex Pro, but quick Google suggests that it should be possible to integrate it with Affinity Photo. If the Masterclass is much slower and step by step then I think it should be good :) I knew it might be a bit weird question to ask as you use Photoshop and are probably happy enough with it to not check out other editing software, but I thought that maybe you heard some feedback from people using it. Maybe I will be the first one to let you know then :) Thanks! 🙏
@@dariuszbukowski7988 the feedback on the class has been amazing. Yes, I don't really have much insight into other software, since PS gives me exactly what I need. Let me know how you go or if you have any questions. You can always email me too
Hi Jan! Thank you so much for the video. I see the first thing you did was change the color profile to standard. Do you always use this color profile or do you ever use any other and why? Thanks in advance!
Another great video, thank you. A problem I have both with wildlife photography and astrophotography is my red-green colour blindness. Any thoughts on how I might use histograms to get the insights you describe, e.g. if an image has an overall 'green wash'?
wow, that's a tough one. I usually go by feel, which isn't helpful for you unfortunately. You can use the histogram to see colour and tonal ranges and see the "technical" side of a colour cast. ua-cam.com/video/PKmVp_rm_Q4/v-deo.html This video gives a little insight. So there are workarounds for you. Might be worth checking out
Jan, is it wishful thinking but am I seeing you talking while you're looking at the screen and editing, as if you are talking us through the process? Maybe some more Master Class content on the way? =P
@@jan_wegener that's exciting news and I can't wait. This might be something you have covered already but how do you know when to walk away from and finish the editing process. Maybe this becomes more obvious the better you get with editing but I find it challenging to actually say that's its finished or sometimes not knowing when to stop and going past the best point and getting into the 'over cooked' over processed situation. Additionally, as a different video topic, I would be very interested in what images you print and how you go about your printing process. It's a part of photography that tends to get a bit more neglected in today's increasingly digital sharing world, but I think nothing compares to a fine print hanging on the wall you can be proud of. What are your thoughts?
@@thethreeislands That's a tough one I struggle with sometimes as well, but I have gotten better at it. Sometimes I feel like whenever I open an image again, I would find something else I might wanna change. Some images make it easier than others, too. Sometimes an image just never feels right, whereas others feel right straight away. Yes, printing is so cool, but I am not really an expert in the field. I have found a good printing studio and use the files as I edit them now, too, just add some sharpening and the results are pretty amazing
Do you have any tips for dealing with colour casts when you're slightly colourblind? I suffer from mild red/green colourblindness which makes it tricky to deal with colour casts. I always have to get someone to look over my images at work (archviz) because it's very common for me to end up with green or pink casts.
I'm no expert, but I switched to high pass sharpening around 12 months ago. USM and Smart Sharpen are simply not very good imho. I do my normal edits in Photoshop, and then I will do a merge layer (alt + clt + shift + E) and then duplicate that layer and apply high pass filter. Most times, I use a single pass, at 0.2px and then I set the layer blending mode to Linear Light. i find that this does a very small amount of sharpening but it looks natural and doesn't leave sharpening fringing. I may sometimes use a 2nd high pass sharpening layer (same process). I do NOT sharpen with NR software (I turn off sharpening in global preferences in DXO Pure RAW 2) and I do NOT sharpen in Lightroom only. On very rare occasions, I may run Topaz Denoise AI in Photoshop as a final adjustment layer to add some sharpening and then adjust the layer opacity by eye accordingly. This is pretty rare for me today. Jan has a recent video on sharpness, where he suggests that sharpness of your image can be enhanced by setting the WB correctly. Since watching that video, I have added this to an amended workflow and I think Jan is 100% spot on. I suspect (correct me if I am wrong Jan) that adjusting the WB correctly affects micro contrast and line edges, leading to a perceived sharpness change in the image (it's a pseudo trick of light I suspect). I tend to tread very lightly with sharpening these days. I will finally add that lens quality is paramount to image sharpness. I went from a Canon EF 300mm f4 IS L to a mark 1 500mm f4 IS L and the difference in resolution and sharpness between the 2 lenses is night & day. You pays for what you get. Spend the money on better glass, it is 100000% worth it imho. Of course, a mark 2 version of the 500f4 is desired and I am saving towards this goal, but I am on a limited income so this will take me several years to achieve.
Regarding the iso vs exposure in post argument you are making. That might be true for the 5D IV. But there are a lot of iso invariant cameras, where it doesn’t matter or barely matters what iso you use. Just an FYI
@@jan_wegener I guess I did not articulate my point well enough. Every camera shows noise when you underexpose and bring the exposure up in post. The point I tried to make was: In many cameras it does not matter if you shoot ISO 400 and increase exposure 1 stop in post, or you shoot ISO 800 and do nothing in post. This is called ISO invariance. One example of a very ISO invariant camera is the Nikon D800e. But there are many examples. You can check here how ISO invariant your camera is: www.photonstophotos.net/Charts/RN_ADU.htm If you want to learn more about ISO invariance, Tony Northrup did two videos on that and F-Stoppers "confirmed" that in their videos (though they did not use an ISO invariant camera ironically lol).
I would say so. I go from More basic techniques to much more advanced stuff towards the end. I think it would give you a great Insight and understanding
I'm no expert in Photoshop (halfway between beginner and intermediate at a guess) and I'd honestly say the Masterclass is totally fine for a beginner. Money well spent imho.
The owl edit looks really weird. Great grey owl has a brown and a slight blue tint to it, and more contrast but not as white as here. This one just looks really odd for me
Interesting point. I looked at many images on Google and their colour goes from grey like this to brown. It seems to vary greatly with region, age and time of the year. I could certainly make some adjustments. Once you work on an image for a long time, you can get lost in it a bit. And a set of fresh eyes can see something, that you're missing. Thanks
In regards to ISO, what do you think of this video: ua-cam.com/video/QVuI89YWAsw/v-deo.html Do you think that the camera is better at processing, than computer editing programs? Thanks!
FWIW my advice on ISO is to go as high as you need to go to get the shot and expose to the Right. If you want 1/2000 and f7.1 for a BIF and it means ISO6400, then use that ISO. It is far better to get the image exposed correctly, even with a high ISO, than underexposed. Underexposed images will never look great imho, even when denoised and then adjusting the exposure to correct in PP (post processing). Never starve your sensor of light. A full frame camera will offer better S/N (signal to noise) than a crop camera, but that's simply because the pixel/sensel is larger in area. Think of it like a big bucket can hold more water than a small bucket. So, ISO 6400 on a APS-C crop camera will always appear to be noisier than the same ISO on a FF camera. These modern MLCs are amazing with their high ISO performance, even say the R7 or R10. Another thing to consider is DR (Dynamic Range). FF cameras will generally, imho, offer better DR and better colour fidelity too. Finally, always try to shoot your subject front lit, preferably in golden hour sunlight. Backlit doesn't help your image with regards to DR and colour fidelity imho. It also hinders AF performance from my personal experiences. If need be, know your birding location, and where the birds will typically appear and then arrive at said location at the right time of day to have the bird front lit. I have some Black Kites no more than 10km from where I live and I know that for the most part, they are best lit in the late afternoon golden hour as they tend to fly into the Western Sun and are front lit. In the morning, they are typically back lit unless you get to said location very early on in the day before the Sun has risen too high in the sky. I hope this helps!
What I'm noticing from watching these videos is that the real challenge isn't knowing HOW to edit, it's knowing WHAT to edit. Your ability to look at a photo and decide what needs to be done is where the real skill lies. I will look at a photo and not know what's wrong with it or what I should do with it, but you can easily pick out 12 different areas that could be improved. It's your ability to "see" that's so good.
Hi Adam, you are making a good point. That's why I always try to explain what I will do before I do it. Having this strategy and seeing what should be done, is almost the most important as you say. Knowing how is important, too, but if you don't know what to change it doesn't help you much.
Another great video with Such a lot of great and unique ideas share with us!
Thanks 😊🙏
Glad you enjoyed it Asif! :)
OMG! i take photos for 10 years now (only as a hobby), but i never knew about this overexpose trick. you should sell this tip for money, it's worth gold.
I do have a Masterclass with all my tricks, but I enjoy sharing things with everyone for free :)
You are a pro. You reminded me of a time when only professional retouchers knew how to retouch pictures. I used to work in advertising agencies and we would work with these pros after we get the shots from the photographer after a shoot. That was even before Illustrator and Photoshop became popular. The most professional software back then was Quantel. Is amazing how times have changed.😀
I have learned a lot from the pro-retouchers we had at my old work. Once you see what can be done a whole new world opens up.
Another great video mate, so many great tips again. Cheers, Duade
thanks mate
Another great video! Thanks for your continuing insight!
My pleasure! Thanks for your comment Dave
Thank you so much for the awesome tips, Jan! Your edit of my pic is just lovely! As a newbie to Photoshop, the liquifying tool is something I would have never thought of using on a bird pic, but it totally balanced the perch out with the bird. I also had a lot of trouble with that rich orange color in this series of shots, but I understand how to correct that now. Thank you, again, for sharing your wisdom with us. I am definitely a better photographer because of your videos...😊
Thanks for sending me your image Cindy and I am happy to hear that I could give you some pointers. I will send you my PSD file, so you can see all the layers etc.
@@jan_wegener Awesome! Thank you so much!
Such beautiful images and stunning birds!! I love your edits!
Thanks! Glad you enjoyed them.
Great tips again Jan. Another very informative video. Thanks a lot. 🤩
My pleasure! Glad you enjoyed it Darrell
Awesome ... great idea using liquify
Thanks Ron. There's so many cool features PS offers
Excellent Jan .. thanks a lot
Glad you had a good time watching it David
Thank you Jan! Less than three minutes into your video and ETTR finally clicked. I was actually wondering where all that darn noise was coming from with shots in low ISO. I am checking all my photos' histograms now and, "Oh, how interesting" LOL, the ones with gaps to the right are the ones I've never been happy with. I have to laugh at myself! I'm tempted to throw them all out and only keep the ones with decent histograms, which, are also my favorite keepers! I am so happy I found your channel!
Glad it was helpful!
You can always just adjust the histogram when editing as well. Personally I think our eyes prefer to see brighter images rather than dark :)
Thanks Jan! Great content as usual!
Thanks Miguel, much appreciated
Really good video and the masterclass has also been very helpful to me!
Great to hear! Thanks a lot Jochen
Awesome tip Jan!
Thank you! :)
Hello jan, all your video tutorials are awesome..
Can you please make a video on how to use flash to freeze the motion of the subject and how to use multiple flash..
Hi, good suggestions, although I don't use it much myself
@@jan_wegener I tried to search similar video on UA-cam. But couldn't find a good one which can really help.. So I requested to someone who is really very good at it ! ☺️☺️
Hey Jan,
Really enjoying this series. can you please let us know what is the keyboard that you are using, plus modifications, to process your images?
Bruce.
I am using a Corsair K99. The short cut I use are assigned in Photoshop. If you look at your copy of the Masterclass, you will find a list with all my shortcuts at around 12:52 into the video
Great videos, great tips, really enjoyed that buddy! 😎😉👍
Thanks buddy, great to hear. Very much appreciated
Dear Jan the yours are the best video in the web on bird photography and the last two are very beautiful and useful as usual.. regarding the editing I have some doubts regarding the owl, the result is very beautiful but in my opinion the Great grey owl is a little too dark in the upper part.
All the best
Antonio
Many thanks! You mean kinda the shoulders on the wing? Good point. I could pull some of the contrast back. I looked at many photos of them, but you almost never see those parts in a flight shot. That's the thing about editing. A set of fresh eyes always helps alot. If you look at an images for hours, you can get lost in it
Missing These Jan 😁
I enjoyed doing them, but they were so much work and got very little views, so I have been putting them off for a bit.
@@jan_wegener I can Imagine! Thanks for the great tips!
Thank you Jan!! ❤️
Glad you liked it Ray :)
Hi, you have fantastic material to watch, many thanks for sharing! I have a question about your Custom Raw Prosets, can I run them using a DNG format, or it has to be RAW only
Works with dng no problem
@@jan_wegener Great news! 😀 Thank you.
Thank you Jan, I love these videos! So many non-obvious tips like using liquify to make the branch a bit smaller, or stretching the lower part of the photo in the last video!
I currently use Affinity Photo for my editing and I'm happy with it. Do you think that using Photoshop is needed to make the most of the Masterclass video? Thanks!
Yes I’m trying to build on some special tips and tricks wherever I can. I haven’t used affinity photo, so I am not entirely sure what it offers. In my Masterclass I am mainly in photoshop, similar to these videos, but much slower and step by step. How much of what you see here is transferable?
@@jan_wegener From all the tools you used here I'm only not familiar with Nik Color Efex Pro, but quick Google suggests that it should be possible to integrate it with Affinity Photo. If the Masterclass is much slower and step by step then I think it should be good :)
I knew it might be a bit weird question to ask as you use Photoshop and are probably happy enough with it to not check out other editing software, but I thought that maybe you heard some feedback from people using it. Maybe I will be the first one to let you know then :) Thanks! 🙏
@@dariuszbukowski7988 the feedback on the class has been amazing. Yes, I don't really have much insight into other software, since PS gives me exactly what I need. Let me know how you go or if you have any questions. You can always email me too
Hi Jan! Thank you so much for the video. I see the first thing you did was change the color profile to standard. Do you always use this color profile or do you ever use any other and why? Thanks in advance!
I use whichever one seems to work best. For the 5D IV usually standard or adobe colour
The under exposure you talk of can be controlled better by using the zebra stripes.
Another great video, thank you. A problem I have both with wildlife photography and astrophotography is my red-green colour blindness. Any thoughts on how I might use histograms to get the insights you describe, e.g. if an image has an overall 'green wash'?
wow, that's a tough one. I usually go by feel, which isn't helpful for you unfortunately. You can use the histogram to see colour and tonal ranges and see the "technical" side of a colour cast.
ua-cam.com/video/PKmVp_rm_Q4/v-deo.html
This video gives a little insight. So there are workarounds for you. Might be worth checking out
Thanks Jan. On a future video, it would be great to see the before and after histograms when you make one of these adjustments.
@@pritbuttar4338 I must admit I never looked at one from that angle, but it would be interesting!
Jan, is it wishful thinking but am I seeing you talking while you're looking at the screen and editing, as if you are talking us through the process? Maybe some more Master Class content on the way? =P
Hey, I always record everything and then cut it. I have some nice ideas that will come out in the next few months hopefully :)
anything in particular you'd like to see?
@@jan_wegener that's exciting news and I can't wait. This might be something you have covered already but how do you know when to walk away from and finish the editing process. Maybe this becomes more obvious the better you get with editing but I find it challenging to actually say that's its finished or sometimes not knowing when to stop and going past the best point and getting into the 'over cooked' over processed situation.
Additionally, as a different video topic, I would be very interested in what images you print and how you go about your printing process. It's a part of photography that tends to get a bit more neglected in today's increasingly digital sharing world, but I think nothing compares to a fine print hanging on the wall you can be proud of. What are your thoughts?
@@thethreeislands That's a tough one I struggle with sometimes as well, but I have gotten better at it. Sometimes I feel like whenever I open an image again, I would find something else I might wanna change. Some images make it easier than others, too. Sometimes an image just never feels right, whereas others feel right straight away.
Yes, printing is so cool, but I am not really an expert in the field. I have found a good printing studio and use the files as I edit them now, too, just add some sharpening and the results are pretty amazing
Do you have any tips for dealing with colour casts when you're slightly colourblind? I suffer from mild red/green colourblindness which makes it tricky to deal with colour casts.
I always have to get someone to look over my images at work (archviz) because it's very common for me to end up with green or pink casts.
hmmm, that would make it difficult for sure? Maybe there are some sort of glasses that could help?
Hi Jan. What about using high Pass for feathers.
I have used it sometimes for sharpening/ getting more details, but only small amounts work
I'm no expert, but I switched to high pass sharpening around 12 months ago. USM and Smart Sharpen are simply not very good imho. I do my normal edits in Photoshop, and then I will do a merge layer (alt + clt + shift + E) and then duplicate that layer and apply high pass filter. Most times, I use a single pass, at 0.2px and then I set the layer blending mode to Linear Light. i find that this does a very small amount of sharpening but it looks natural and doesn't leave sharpening fringing. I may sometimes use a 2nd high pass sharpening layer (same process).
I do NOT sharpen with NR software (I turn off sharpening in global preferences in DXO Pure RAW 2) and I do NOT sharpen in Lightroom only.
On very rare occasions, I may run Topaz Denoise AI in Photoshop as a final adjustment layer to add some sharpening and then adjust the layer opacity by eye accordingly. This is pretty rare for me today.
Jan has a recent video on sharpness, where he suggests that sharpness of your image can be enhanced by setting the WB correctly. Since watching that video, I have added this to an amended workflow and I think Jan is 100% spot on. I suspect (correct me if I am wrong Jan) that adjusting the WB correctly affects micro contrast and line edges, leading to a perceived sharpness change in the image (it's a pseudo trick of light I suspect).
I tend to tread very lightly with sharpening these days.
I will finally add that lens quality is paramount to image sharpness. I went from a Canon EF 300mm f4 IS L to a mark 1 500mm f4 IS L and the difference in resolution and sharpness between the 2 lenses is night & day. You pays for what you get. Spend the money on better glass, it is 100000% worth it imho. Of course, a mark 2 version of the 500f4 is desired and I am saving towards this goal, but I am on a limited income so this will take me several years to achieve.
Regarding the iso vs exposure in post argument you are making. That might be true for the 5D IV. But there are a lot of iso invariant cameras, where it doesn’t matter or barely matters what iso you use. Just an FYI
In your experience, which camera doesn't show noise even if you underexpose the files severely at high iso?
@@jan_wegener
I guess I did not articulate my point well enough. Every camera shows noise when you underexpose and bring the exposure up in post. The point I tried to make was:
In many cameras it does not matter if you shoot ISO 400 and increase exposure 1 stop in post, or you shoot ISO 800 and do nothing in post.
This is called ISO invariance. One example of a very ISO invariant camera is the Nikon D800e. But there are many examples. You can check here how ISO invariant your camera is:
www.photonstophotos.net/Charts/RN_ADU.htm
If you want to learn more about ISO invariance, Tony Northrup did two videos on that and F-Stoppers "confirmed" that in their videos (though they did not use an ISO invariant camera ironically lol).
Hi Jan. How about editing for competition entries. Best regards. James from Scotland. Ps love your videos.
Great suggestion! Although I don't do them anymore. Cheers, Jan. Most things you've seen here you couldn't really do when entering a comp
we need episode
4
The time to make them wasn't really in line with the views, so I haven't done any for a while
you are a outstanding instructor - do you use light room or just Camera RAW - I am getting used to your accent
ACR for me, although with the R5 I have been forced to use DPP
@@jan_wegener I thought they had updated the ACR with the R5 profile - I loved DPP until I got into LR many more options - thanks for your reply
@@marcystarnes5511 They have, but they're terrible profiles
Is the Masterclass you offer suitable for a beginner user in Photoshop?
I would say so. I go from
More basic techniques to much more advanced stuff towards the end. I think it would give you a great Insight and understanding
I'm no expert in Photoshop (halfway between beginner and intermediate at a guess) and I'd honestly say the Masterclass is totally fine for a beginner. Money well spent imho.
Looks like you made a water colour out of it. Maybe it's UA-cam
could depend on what resolution you watch it. Although people always seem to associate lighter backgrounds with a more painting like look.
How do we send our images to you
Best do DM me the photo you want me to edit on Instagram
The owl edit looks really weird. Great grey owl has a brown and a slight blue tint to it, and more contrast but not as white as here. This one just looks really odd for me
Interesting point. I looked at many images on Google and their colour goes from grey like this to brown. It seems to vary greatly with region, age and time of the year. I could certainly make some adjustments. Once you work on an image for a long time, you can get lost in it a bit. And a set of fresh eyes can see something, that you're missing. Thanks
In regards to ISO, what do you think of this video: ua-cam.com/video/QVuI89YWAsw/v-deo.html Do you think that the camera is better at processing, than computer editing programs? Thanks!
FWIW my advice on ISO is to go as high as you need to go to get the shot and expose to the Right. If you want 1/2000 and f7.1 for a BIF and it means ISO6400, then use that ISO. It is far better to get the image exposed correctly, even with a high ISO, than underexposed. Underexposed images will never look great imho, even when denoised and then adjusting the exposure to correct in PP (post processing). Never starve your sensor of light. A full frame camera will offer better S/N (signal to noise) than a crop camera, but that's simply because the pixel/sensel is larger in area. Think of it like a big bucket can hold more water than a small bucket. So, ISO 6400 on a APS-C crop camera will always appear to be noisier than the same ISO on a FF camera. These modern MLCs are amazing with their high ISO performance, even say the R7 or R10.
Another thing to consider is DR (Dynamic Range). FF cameras will generally, imho, offer better DR and better colour fidelity too.
Finally, always try to shoot your subject front lit, preferably in golden hour sunlight. Backlit doesn't help your image with regards to DR and colour fidelity imho. It also hinders AF performance from my personal experiences. If need be, know your birding location, and where the birds will typically appear and then arrive at said location at the right time of day to have the bird front lit. I have some Black Kites no more than 10km from where I live and I know that for the most part, they are best lit in the late afternoon golden hour as they tend to fly into the Western Sun and are front lit. In the morning, they are typically back lit unless you get to said location very early on in the day before the Sun has risen too high in the sky.
I hope this helps!
@@davepastern thanks so much for the reply! Will take your advice for sure!