Another Black Skimmer

[Bill Dix]

Skimmers have been well represented here in the last few months, and here's yet another. From Brigantine last Friday. I liked the environment of this one, and the morning light. C&C always appreciated.

D7000, 500f4, ISO 800, 1/1600s @ f/6.3 manual, Gitzo and Mongoose

[Sachin Saraf]

Bill, I liked this one...Excellent exposure, sharpness, flight angle and skimming pose... I would make BG slightly smoother by running blur on BG..

[arash_hazeghi]

excellent skimming pose and details I also wish the subject to BG separation was a bit better

[Maya Raut]

Hi Bill,

Amazing skimming pose, exposure, sharpness, details and light. I also agree with Sachin and Arash about BG separation.

- Maya

[Bill Dix]

Thanks guys. I also felt that while I liked the sense of environment, the bg did tend to draw the eye into the weeds. Arash, I know you've been outspoken about your dislike of blur filters, so I'm guessing what you were wishing for was more of a natural separation (i.e. in-camera DOF) -- a wish that I share. I've used slight blurs in the past to try and smooth a blotchy but mostly uniform bg, sometimes with success IMHO. But this is a different case, especially with the reflection of the grasses in the water.

Still, I've gone ahead and given it a try, with a moderate Gaussian blur (12 px) to the bg above the waterline, and a little selective blur tool to the grass reflection on the left. I've tried to make it look like a natural DOF, and I do think it helps keep the eye on the bird; but I'm not convinced that it looks totally natural. I would love your opinions.

[Robert Holguin]

Very nice shot. I really like the skimming trail, great wing position, exposed very well, and I think you did a great job on the repost.
Well done.

[Randy Stout]

Bill:
I like the inclusion of habitat, since we often see skimmers with open water as background. Yes, a little distracting, esp. the large clump on the left side of the frame.

I do think the repost reduces the distraction.

The bird itself is excellent,good pose, water trail, nice sharpness and exposure.

From a comp standpoint, maybe the slightest bit more canvas on the right.

Another post option would be to selectively brush in reduced contrast on the large clump to the left. I feathered in a significant reduction in contrast, which really reduced its eye pulling effect without looking unnatural.

Cheers

Randy

[dankearl]

Very cool pose and great timing.
I like the habitat and the repost is an improvement.

[Jim Crosswell]

I like the setting, wing position, pose and skimming trail. Repost is an improvement. Well done Bill.

[David Salem]

Nice Skimmer shot. I like the trail and the scene. Nice job on the exposure, blacks and whites look great. Re-post is an improvement....

David

[Ofer Levy]

Bird is sharp with good detail, awesome pose! Would tone down white on body. The BG in the repost looks fine. However, the main weakness of this image IMHO is the lack of room on the right. The bird is coming from the right and flying to the left - it makes sense to me to allow a lot more room on the right.

[Bill Dix]

Thanks everyone for your comments.

Randy (or anyone else): how does one selectively brush in less contrast? Is this one of the modes of the brush tool in CS5? None of those says "contrast" but perhaps one of those modes achieves this.

Randy, yes I would have preferred just a bit more room on the right, but don't have it in this frame. I got six sequential frames of this pass by the Skimmer, and some had more room on the right, but this one had the best position of the bill in the water, and was one of the sharpest. As I panned, I was trying to lead the bird, and got just a little too far ahead of him here.

Ofer, having said that I'd like a little more room on the right, I wouldn't have wanted much more. I generally like to give a bird plenty of room to fly into. A skimmer skimming can be an exception to the rule, and I do have some skimmer shots with the bird two-thirds into the frame to emphasize the skimmer's wake, especially with really calm water. But that wasn't my intention here.

Again, thanks for all of your helpful comments.