Fish for lunch

[nick clayton]

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Brown Boobie
Caribbean Sea, Lesser Antilles. 03/12/12

Canon EOS 7D
Canon 300mm f2.8L IS II + Canon 2x extender III
1/2500 @ f7.1
0 EV
Aperture priority
ISO 400
Pattern

levels
curves
saturation
selective colour
Nik Software color Efex Pro 4 - Tonal contrast - subject only
Nik Software Dfine 2.0 - background only
Photoshop USM - subject only

[Randy Stout]

Nick:

Interesting comp but would prefer the boobie to not be quite so deep into the corner. Wish the eye was a bit more distinct.

I hate to admit it, but I am not sure what the critter is in the RUC? Bird or some unusual flying fish? Silly I know, but have to assume its a fish based on the title.

Cheers

Randy

[nick clayton]

Yes, it is a flying fish Randy, thanks for the reply.

[Arthur Morris]

Nick:

Interesting comp but would prefer the boobie to not be quite so deep into the corner. Wish the eye was a bit more distinct. Cheers, Randy

Randy. I think that you need to have your eyes checked. :). The booby is flying away from us--the eye cannot be seen at all.... Of the four visible objects in the frame my least favorite is the booby. Love both reflections and the flying fish. And I think that the image design is perfect. Can you post the full frame ORIG?

[dankearl]

I stared at this and after Arthur's comment, it came to me.
I thought the same as Randy.
Nick, you really Stretch the envelope with your posts and after I got it, it is a minimalist masterpiece!
It would look great in a full 10x14 print.
Well done and keep them coming.

[nick clayton]

Artie, please see attached full frame original, the only post processing I have done is increase the exposure by 1.1 in ACR. I must admit I was a bit confused by Randy’s eye comment, I hadn’t realised he thought the bird was flying towards me. I have also posted a sequence which may help to visualise what is going on. Thanks for the comments.

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[Arthur Morris]

Amazing sequence. Cannot believe that the fish stayed airborne long enough to get eaten. For the repost I corrected the big blue cast with a 77% Average Blur Color Balance adjustment and used a large (25/80/0) contrast mask to sharpen the bird, the fish, and the reflections. All as described in detail in Digital Basics. (https://store.birdsasart.com/shop/item.aspx?itemid=252) Cropped as per Randy's comment.

Image quality is somewhat lacking.

[Randy Stout]

Nick:

OUch! I am so conditioned to see birds flying towards us, I missed that. Saw the tail as the bill, and the rump as the breast.

Obviously the wing structure is wrong, just victim of seeing what I expect to see.

The title should have been the clue, but I thought he had missed and was moving on to the next fish!

Lets see, basic bird anatomy 101! Head is usually on the front of the bird :t3

Randy

[nick clayton]

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I’m please you liked the sequence Artie, I was amazed how far these fish glided above the water.

I was aware of the Average Blur Color Balance from digital basics but had not thought to use it, thanks for the reminder, I used it at 50% on this repost as I liked the water with a bit more blue.

Randy’s comment regarding the crop would not be relevant as he thought the bird was flying towards the bottom left corner, if this had been the case the bird would have needed more space to fly into. In my repost I have allowed less space at the bottom but more at the top than your repost.

We all make mistakes on what we see from time to time Randy, I thought a guy was kneeling on Artie’s blog the other day and he was standing! http://www.birdsasart-blog.com/2013/01/17/the-rookie/#comments

Thanks
Nick