Bar Tailed Godwit

[gail bisson]

A dark rainy day in Nome produced some nice moody shots of the godwit.
It is not noise in the BG but light mist/drizzle. I tried a gaussian blur of the BG but didn't like it. Any ideas?
Canon 1DX
600mm and 1.4x III
ISO 1600
f 5.6
SS 1/400
Comments and critiques always appreciated and learned from with thanks,
Gail
PP Crop by 15%, cloned out a black blob (? rock) in front of godwit, NR to BG, levels ,DE at 5% to TIFF and sharpen JPEG at 30%/0.3

[Girish Prahalad]

lovely composition & the setting is very beautiful. like the open beak with the visible tongue.

[Randy Stout]

Gail:

Lovely soft, saturated colors,open bill,exposure.

I have something I will try on the bg when I get home tonight, let you know if helps with the rain noise.

Cheers

Randy

[David Salem]

I really like the whole scene on this one Gail. The mossy perch and the shrubs around it are a beautiful setting for this good looking Godwit. The one legged calling pose is very appealing. I do see the mist as it looks just like noise. Im not the PP expert so I will leave it up to them. Looks like NR should smooth it out though. Nice frame Gail.
Oh ya, solid techs! especially for the conditions.

[Jim Crosswell]

I like the pose, open bill, perch, setting and IQ. I would crop a bit off the top and right but fine as presented. Well done Gail!

[Joe Murphy]

Lovely shot Gail, very nice setting, I like the droplets on the twigs, the Godwit looks happy in the conditions, NR on the BG will clean it up quite well.

[mohammad reza shahab]

lovely composition & Background Color.nice perch and pose.

[Bill Dix]

Beautiful image, Gail; and a great species to capture. I love the wet Alaskan setting. I would think a heavy dose of NR would do it.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Love the mood, colours, setting. Excellent head turn and the open bill and tongue really add alot. The mist did indeed cause an odd effect here...I would have thought some gaussian blur would have done the trick. I'm not convinced NR would work unless applied quite aggressively, who knows (not home to try it out). Hope Randy's idea turns out good.

[Vivaldo Damilano]

Perfect frame Gail, also enjoy the head turn, open beak and tongue. I normally use Gaussian blur to smoothen BG a little, it should work nicely on this image. Great mood though, love the different perch.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Gail, I really like the setting here, and love the open bill and visible tongue. The rain droplets on the foliage strengthen the mood of the shoot, and I do like the overall colours.

Does Alaska ever have any good days with blue sky and sun. :w3

[dankearl]

Gail,
Beautiful color, i just Ran a round of NR, It takes away the Rain effect, but I think looks better.
I shoot often in Rain and usually always just eliminate the drops or whatever unless It looks
significantly like a lot of rain.
Not easy to pull off the rain look, so I don't try often.
Hope you don't mind.
Just a quick fix, I am sure you could do better.

BarTailedGodwitNomedk_F0T3155.jpg (http://www.birdphotographers.net/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=130413&stc=1&d=1373583939)

[gail bisson]

hi Dan,
this looks much better.I will have to go back to my RAW because
I did try a second round of NR on the BG but I got some artifacting so then tried 1round of NR and some Gaussian blur and really disliked that.
feel free to muck about my shots anytime.I always appreciate your help,
Gail
Stuart,
We had 2 1/2 days of sun and 4 1/2 days of rain. just bad luck. I will eventually show some sunny day pics!

[Juan Carlos Vindas]

Repost work here!
Very nice soft light. Pose and habitat/vegetation.

[Satish Ranadive]

Excellent image image with soft light,mist and rain.
Love the pose with open beak and tongue,nice colors,details and very nice FG having beautiful vegetation with water droplets.
Re pose looks superb.

Regards,
Satish.

[Shawn Zierman]

First, congrats on accomplishing such a beautiful image of a shorebird I would love to see in person on North American soil. Gorgeous setting too. I enjoy the image very much, and appreciate the version in #12 even more. The breeding plumage is really sweet.

[Iain Barker]

I love the first image and the repost has made it even better.
Superb photo Gail well done.

[christopher galeski]

Great image here Gail,like every thing about it,the environment it is in and the light magic.well done.

[Shawn Zierman]

Forgot to ask...was audio used?

[Frank Schauf]

Perfect comp and light, nice work.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Gail not been on the bird circuit for a while but this shot just grabbed my eye, I love the original, the repost is very nice too, it is very clean, but for my taste I prefer the original by far I think you have caught the mood of the scene beautifully.

[Tim King]

Very nice, Gail. Love the red.