Courtship Display (Elegant Terns)

[David Salem]

Posted a shot last week of a pair with a food offering. Couldn't find this shot in my files as I was going to post it next. This display is fun to watch and photograph as the two climb high into the sky, then set there wings and do a spiraling coast down right next to each other.
The real shot, that I haven't gotten yet, is both together with both Terns having their wings craned way up high. It looks really cool and I hope to get a shot of it this summer.

1DMKIV---700mm---f5.6---ss1/3200---IOS400---HH@5:30pm

Thanks as always for looking and for your input. Appreciated.


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[James Fuller]

Nice symmetry between the birds, I only wish for a little separation between the two individuals.

[David Salem]

Thanks for the input James. I was wondering if the two overlapping a little would be bothersome but I thought it was better because they were so close. Here is one, probably the frame before, with them separated. Which one do you like?.

Thanks again.

[Nick Palmieri]

The re-post is real nice. Nice light, nice position of the birds. Love the open mouth of the first one! Great capture!

[Stu Bowie]

Hi David, your repost certainly takes the symmetrical flight poses up a notch with separation between the two terns. The one open bill adds interest. Well timed, and well captured.

Seems as if Nick and myself were typing at the same time. :w3

[Don Nelson]

Excellent pairing image with male leading and calling. I prefer the separated version, but the first version isn't bad either.
this is a great example of tern pair bonding display.

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

I liked both. Symmetry is awesome. Good DOF coverage.

Might be a good idea to play with white balance. I am finding the whites a bit too yellow.

[Clemens Vanderwerf]

The symmetry is the main theme here. It is too bad the tail is behind the head, but I like the positions in the first post better. Would like to see more room in front to fly into. Some toning down of the yellows in the whites will give it a fresher look.

[David Salem]

Thanks everyone for the comments and suggestions. I take many shots of Terns and skimmers at this location but due to the gloomy mornings, most are taken in the evening. As the sun gets lower the terns get more of that yellow/orange hue. Not sure if it is undesirable but I like it in some shots. I adjusted the white balance a bit on this. Did it help? Thanks again for the help.

[PhilCook]

Grace epitomized......beautiful symmetry. To be honest I cant decide which one I prefer , but I do think the extra close flight formation with the tail overlapping just seems to appeal a little more for my tastes. The slightly yellow tones are OK and I think the WB has improved slightly

[Don Nelson]

David
Could use a bit more whitening -- this was done with a simple Nik4 adjustment for white balance using their eyedropper on the end wingtips (greyish-white area)
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[Daniel Cadieux]

I'm in agreement with Clemens. Great tandem you got here, and I love the one open bill and matching wing poses. On the original post were there any blown whites before processing? There seems to be a patch on each belly that look like burned-in areas (sorry if I am wrong, just speaking from experience I've had before with the burn tool)

[David Salem]

Thanks Don for the help. Looks great and sure is whiter. Think Im going to get some NIK software this weekend. What package do you recommend for the PP work involved with bird photography? I heard it is simple to use and intuitive. My buddy was showing me the same thing the other day. Put the eyedropper on a spot and shazzam, changed the balance to that spot.

Daniel, you sure have a good eye. Yes there was a small area on both birds on only the original post that was blown and Yes I did use the dodge tool. I am still working on my PP skills and hope it didn't look to obvious. Been using it at only 2% opacity and sweeping it over the area to tone it down a bit. Thanks for the help and comments on my posts. Always appreciated

[Doug Zoern]

Dave,
Really nice capture. I do like the white balance rework but the original was good too. If the light was yellow it was yellow.
I prefer the original overlap. The closeness of the birds adds an intimacy that gets lost in the 2nd image. Could look into fixing that up.

[John Cooper]

Hi David - Lots of interesting dialogue stimulated by this post. I must admit I very much like the separation of the 2 Terns and love the symmetry displayed here. The warm tones produced by the late sun are quite attractive but the Whitening given by Don's treatment also looks good to me. A lovely capture David. I'm no guru when it comes to PP but can't the whitening be achieved just as well in PS?

[Randy Stout]

David:

The symmetrical poses are excellent, slightly prefer the repost with a bit of separation. Yes, they are a bit yellow, and I would neutralize the whites a bit, but probably not all the way.

Look forward to more of there lovely harmony.

Cheers

Randy

[Karl Egressy]

Great shyncrony between them. I like both versions; the fully separated and the overlapping one. Great work David.

[Don Nelson]

Thanks Don for the help. Looks great and sure is whiter. Think Im going to get some NIK software this weekend. What package do you recommend for the PP work involved with bird photography? I heard it is simple to use and intuitive. My buddy was showing me the same thing the other day. Put the eyedropper on a spot and shazzam, changed the balance to that spot.



Nik has both a complete package as well as individual pieces. While I've got the complete package, the one used here was simply Nik Color Efex Pro 4. You can also apply control points to only do certain regions. yes, you could do this in photoshop -- especially with this image that isn't very complex. But Color Efex Pro 4 also has some incredibly useful tools like Tonal Contrast and Detail enhancer which work exceptionally well. Yes, you could do this with complex masking and adjustment layers, but its pretty easy to treat Nik tools as just another filter within the photoshop environment. You cannot eliminate photoshop for other features. And you'll also want DPP(for Canon) for high ISO image noise removal at Tiff creation (which you import into PS and convert to smart object) and Lightroom for some of the convenience features.

So bottom line, you'll use Color Efex Pro 4 the most; some use Viveza for color enhancement, and the output sharpening tools are useful for printing (but I use PS for display output sharpening). You don't have to get the complete package.

disclosure: I don't have any association with Nik or Google, nor Adobe.

[Satish Ranadive]

David:
Great flight poses captured.I like the whites in the re post by Don.Rest every thing has been said about this excellent image.
Love the beautiful symmetry.

Regards,
Satish.

[Bill Dix]

Great synchronized poses in both frames - like others, I like the tight flying poses of the first, and the separation of the second, but I guess you need both frames to have it both ways. I don't mind a little yellow if that's what it was, but that's personal taste, I guess. Daniel's sharp eye always amazes me. A little more room in front would help.

[David Salem]

Thank you everyone for the nice comments and the PP help. Appreciated.