Close To You

[Cheryl Arena Molennor]

Shot this image this past May. I love watching the courting behavior with these Royal Terns. I really like the ruffled feather on the bird to our right.
I cropped the wing on one of them so I decided to crop tight.
1DMIV 500 mmf4
ISO 320 f6.3 @1/2000

[Alan Murphy]

Just beautiful Cheryl.

[Grace Scalzo]

Sweet image with wonderful lines and colors. A pleasure to view. I suspect that you could tease more detail from the whites in the left hand bird's neck.

[Gary Esman]

Gorgeous shot Cheryl....congrats!

Gary.

[MohsenVahedipour]

Very nice crop, lovely details & BG.

[Robert Holguin]

This is just beautiful.
Exposed perfectly, details are superb, and excellent comp.
Very well done.

[Andre Pretorius]

Beautiful capture, Cheryl. I have the same problem with some of my images; whites in harsh light, with loss of detail. Tried curves with mask, can't get it right. Crop works for me.

[Satish Ranadive]

Excellent moment captured.Wonderful whites, great IQ,beautiful lights.Rest as usual superb. Love it.

Regards,
Satish.

[Greg Oakley]

Awesome image Cheryl

[Frank Schauf]

Excellent pose and light, good exposure control and nice comp, Cheryl.

[Cheryl Arena Molennor]

Sweet image with wonderful lines and colors. A pleasure to view. I suspect that you could tease more detail from the whites in the left hand bird's neck.

appreciate the comments I had to bring some back in recovery in I had to bring him back in recovery in ACR perhaps I need to do a little bit more thanks so much

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Cheryl, long time no speak. :S3:

This is really gorgeous, love the colours, but more the body posture. Quickly looking at the image, I would look to adding a Curves mid tone adjustment, perhaps two with various degrees of masking just to pull out a bit more shadow/depth fro the whites and add more form within the bill, avoiding the blacks of the head. Whether you add to the BKG is option, I have. You can perhaps get the same effect through adding a Contrast adjustment layer, however to do this the 'proper way' is more complex with a combination of Channels, Curves & Levels in one go as an adjustment layer, plus an inverted version with masking. :w3

Hope it helps.

Steve

[Bill Dix]

Wonderful interaction that you captured, Cheryl, and your crop makes for a terrific comp. Exposure looks great to my eye; whatever tweaking you needed to do worked well. Steve's repost does seem to give it just a bit more punch and detail. Easy to say in retrospect, but I'm guessing a little more ISO and a stop or two down might have made the RH bird's head a little sharper. Such photogenic birds!

[Melissa Groo]

What a stunning portrait, Cheryl, I love it!!! So intimate, so well composed and balanced. I like Steve's rework (though I think now I see perhaps a bit of a sharpening halo on the birds' heads).

[Cheryl Arena Molennor]

Hi Cheryl, long time no speak. :S3:

This is really gorgeous, love the colours, but more the body posture. Quickly looking at the image, I would look to adding a Curves mid tone adjustment, perhaps two with various degrees of masking just to pull out a bit more shadow/depth fro the whites and add more form within the bill, avoiding the blacks of the head. Whether you add to the BKG is option, I have. You can perhaps get the same effect through adding a Contrast adjustment layer, however to do this the 'proper way' is more complex with a combination of Channels, Curves & Levels in one go as an adjustment layer, plus an inverted version with masking. :w3

Hope it helps.

Steve

Those darn whites :) I'm gonna try that Steve as I do see some improvement. I'll be back Thanks BTW Thanks everyone

[dankearl]

Very nice Cheryl, especially getting the eye contact from both.
Steve's repost looks good but I think the OP if fine also.

[Jamie Douglas]

WOW this is a bobby dazzler of an image. Love the interaction Cheryl.

[Cheryl Arena Molennor]

Hi Cheryl, long time no speak. :S3:

This is really gorgeous, love the colours, but more the body posture. Quickly looking at the image, I would look to adding a Curves mid tone adjustment, perhaps two with various degrees of masking just to pull out a bit more shadow/depth fro the whites and add more form within the bill, avoiding the blacks of the head. Whether you add to the BKG is option, I have. You can perhaps get the same effect through adding a Contrast adjustment layer, however to do this the 'proper way' is more complex with a combination of Channels, Curves & Levels in one go as an adjustment layer, plus an inverted version with masking. :w3

Hope it helps.

Steve

Okay I had some time to re work this. Did an adjustment to the midtones,mostly on the whites

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Cheryl, looking better IMHO, but as I say, WDYT that for me is the ultimate question?

When you start to get to this stage it really is subtlety and refinement, the later being key. If you use Curves then you can keep pushing it until it looks wrong, then just pull back either by the amount or in Opacity, and with masking you can be even more direct ie in the grey of the wing compared to the whites, if that makes sense?

[Cheryl Arena Molennor]

Hi Cheryl, looking better IMHO, but as I say, WDYT that for me is the ultimate question?

When you start to get to this stage it really is subtlety and refinement, the later being key. If you use Curves then you can keep pushing it until it looks wrong, then just pull back either by the amount or in Opacity, and with masking you can be even more direct ie in the grey of the wing compared to the whites, if that makes sense?

For me Steve, it looks better. When I first worked it I couldn't believe the difference and my OP looked so washed out to me. After looking at the new post before I posted it I realized I had gone to far and unmasked some of the effect in the wings and greay areas as I felt they were too grey. So.... That being said I think I did good and am happy with the repost and you Rock :)

[Girish Prahalad]

a surefire material for a greeting card. great poses with excellent exp & details.

[vishaljadhav]

i love the pose and its a beautiful composition