Least Sandpiper

[Raybel Robles]

D7100 | 600mm (300mm w/ 2x TC) | 1/800s | f/8 | ISO 200

[Don Railton]

Hi Raybel,

I like the dynamic pose with water flying... It looks nicely exposed to me and sharp on the head... My only wish would be for the bill to be a little more visable and lying outside the chest feathers..

DON

[Iain Barker]

Like the low angle, Lighting and wing up position of the bird. i was going to make the same comment as Don about the head.

TFS
Iain

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Raybel, excellent low perspective, and I do like the angled pose of the sandpiper. Motion blur on the raised wings works well, and I also like the two tone BG, although, I would take at least half off the bottom.

[Raybel Robles]

Thank you all for your good critiques! Always help me make better decision on future photos!


Raybel

[Daniel Cadieux]

An excellent "after-bath" wing flap image. Beautiful FG to BG transition. I agree in taking a bit off the bottom, but all else looks great to me.

[Jim Crosswell]

I like the sharpness, wing blur, BG and agree with Stuarts composition suggestion. Nice image Raybel.

[Arthur Morris]

Hi Raybel, The folks above are too smart. All of their comments are right-on. I will be back in two minutes....

ps: where and when was the photograph made?

[Raybel Robles]

Hi Raybel, The folks above are too smart. All of their comments are right-on. I will be back in two minutes....

ps: where and when was the photograph made?


Hi Artie,

This photo was taken Saturday last weekend in Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands.


and thank you all for the comments!

Ray

[Arthur Morris]

YAW Raybel. I got tied up checking in for my flight home from Japan :). And YAW>

IAC, for the repost I selected the head using the Quick Selection Tool, ran a 50/50 layer of NIK (Tonal Contrast and Detail Extractor) on that, sharpened the face with a contrast mask, and, using Tim Grey Dodge and Burn, I lightened the shaded feathers to our right of the bird's head and darkened the bill a bit, all in an effort to get the head to pop....

[Arthur Morris]

ps: And cropped from the bottom as well.

[Raybel Robles]

ps: And cropped from the bottom as well.


Superb! Thank you so much for your help Arthur. Much appreciated.

I will try and replicate this on photoshop and learn something new!


Thanks again

Raybel

[Iain Barker]

With Artie's repost making the head stand out more, I now don't mind the fact it isn't clear of the body.

[Arthur Morris]

Superb! Thank you so much for your help Arthur. Much appreciated.

I will try and replicate this on photoshop and learn something new!


Thanks again

Raybel

YOu are most welcome. I meant to mention Digital Basics--everything that I did plus tons more is covered there in detail; Digital Basics (https://store.birdsasart.com/shop/item.aspx?itemid=252) is an instructional PDF that is sent via e-mail. It includes my complete digital workflow, dozens of great Photoshop tips, the use of Contrast Masks, several different ways of expanding canvas, color balance tips, several ways of eliminated color casts, all of my time-saving Keyboard Shortcuts, the basics of Quick Masking, Layer Masking, and NIK Color Efex Pro, my killer image clean-up techniques, Digital Eye Doctor, and lots more.

[Rob Melone]

It's a very nice low angle capture with very pleasing reflections, head angle and wing blur.