Sanderling

[Glenn Conlan]

This little guy came really close, at my minimum focus distance.

Tripod Jobu head
D4 600mm
ISO2500
F4.0
1/640 sec
Manuel exp

Thanks for your comments

[Ian Wilson]

Good capture Glenn. I admire your bravery in taking the shot at f/4, just enough DoF which nicely isolates the bird. Well done!
Regards, Ian

[Dave Spates]

Very nice shot, excellent low view. The quality is amazing for iso 2500

[christopher galeski]

nice image,sharp with good detail,like the feeding pose,nice light.

[Shawn Zierman]

I enjoy the low angle work, the pretty plumage, and the great feeding pose. Consider Western Sandpiper for the ID... :)

[Glenn Conlan]

Thanks for the I'D correction Shawn

Sent from my SM-N900P using Tapatalk

[Bill Dix]

Nice low angle and pose. Amazed you got decent DOF at f/4, being that close.

[Daniel Cadieux]

I like the foot sunken in the mud. I'd lighten the reflection in the eye to give it a bit more life. Neat little shorebird, love it when they tolerate human presence like this!

[Arthur Morris]

Yes to a nice image of an adult Western molting to breeding plumage. Love the raised foot feeding pose. Be right back....

[Arthur Morris]

Whaddya think?

[Glenn Conlan]

Whaddya think?
Looks better Arthur did you add Vibrance or Saturation? Thanks for the help my processing skills are very weak.

Glenn

[Arthur Morris]

Looks better Arthur did you add Vibrance or Saturation? Thanks for the help my processing skills are very weak.

Glenn

You are most welcome Glenn. I did a lot. But quickly. I selected the bird with the Quick Selection Tool and ran my NIK Color Efex Pro 50/50 layer (Tonal Contrast and Detail Extractor) and reduced the opacity of that to about 50%. Then I boosted the SAT (perhaps a bit too much). I pulled the curve down on the whole image mainly to darken the water and then did a bit of Eye Doctor work. Lastly I sharpened the face only with a Contrast Mask (Unsharp Mask at 15/65/0) and lightened it a bit.

Everything above is explained clearly in my Digital Basics File. Are you tired of making your images look worse in Photoshop? Have you no clue as to how I optimized the image above? The Photoshop techniques mentioned above plus tons more is detailed in my Digital Basics File (https://store.birdsasart.com/shop/item.aspx?itemid=252), 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 and filling in canvas, all of my time-saving Keyboard Shortcuts, Quick Masking, Layer Masking, and NIK Color Efex Pro basics, my killer image clean-up techniques, Digital Eye Doctor, creating time-saving actions, and lots more.

I wrote Digital Basics for folks like you! We have sold more than 4,000 copies over the years and I need to get another free update out soon. Thanks a stack for your membership support.