Two Chicks (American Avocets)

[wendell westfall]

D90 70-200VR+2X@400 1/1250 f5.6 ISO400 0EV monopod

These two young chicks walked around this morning in the mud, often imitating Mama sweeping the flats for food. I got some pictures of each of them that were a bit closer (this is a 50% crop), but none of them together like this, with a pretty nice shadow. Crop, adjustments and sharpening in LR3.

Wendell

[gail bisson]

What a sweet image of the two youngsters.
I like the mirror poses and the great reflections.
I would rotate CCW a bit and clean up the water.
The whites are blown and the IQ has suffered a bit from the distance and crop but still a nice image,
Gail

[Marina Scarr]

This is a lovely capture you have here. I can understand why this one was your favorite. Your horizon looks good to me. You can tell b/c if you match up the beak of the chick and the same beak of the reflection, they are perfectly in line with one another. Your whites area definitely blown and your image is overall a tad bright. This can be easily remedied by starting over with the RAW file. Once you tone down those whites, it should give you more details in your chicks. Knowing the size of your crop, I think you picked a good comp. I don't often remove elements from my photos but, in this particular case, I think I would remove the specs from the water if you are so inclined. A tad more sharpening when all is said and done might improve an already pleasing image.

[wendell westfall]

gail and Marina:
Thanks so much for your thoughtful critiques! You both say the whites are blown; I have had this comment on my posts in the past when "my" histogram shows no sign of the whites being blown. What's going on? So, I double-checked and find that I'm exporting my file from LR3 as a jpg in Adobe RGB (1998) color space. There are three color space export possibilities in LR3, as I see it: sRGB, AdobeRGB(1998) and ProPhoto RGB. Am I choosing the wrong one? The mysteries of color space are beyond me, but I'm wondering if that is the problem when I often am told of blown whites when nothing shows amiss on the histogram in LR3 before export. I'd really appreciate it if you would let me know your thoughts on this.
Wendell

[Marina Scarr]

For web you want to convert jpg to sRGB. That could well make the difference.

[wendell westfall]

Marina, thanks, I'll change and use sRGB . . . .

[Daniel Cadieux]

Very cute. My first thought was that the image needed rotation too, but it is indeed the shadow behind the rear bird that creates the illusion (the bill and bill's reflection are indeed perfect;y matched up). I do find the water too "cyan", and yes, converting to srgb for web posting will ensure that everyone (assuming calibrated monitors) will see the colours you intend them to see.

[Gerald Kelberg]

Nice shot Wendell - perfect reflections! And you know how I love Avocets! The way these two are lining up and that raised foot on the back one is a nice detail.

You might like to have a look at the Brightness level in LR3. The default is 50 and I have now decided that I need to tone this down a bit to 40 or 35 and I think it makes a big difference. The higher level may be contributing to your "blown" whites. Worth a look.

Best wishes,

Gerald

[wendell westfall]

Gerald, I remember we two are avocet lovers. And you may have something there; I will "play" with Brightness levels a bit . . .