American Avocet

[Geoffrey Montagu]

This may be my first post in this forum. I captured the image several days ago at the Jersey shore. These birds are normally way south, Cuba or in Mexico at this time of year. The sun was not in the best location, but the Avocets were and being lifer birds for me, I was determined to do some work on the image in B&W. This is full frame and the toning was done using NIK Silver Efex Pro 2. Any thoughts or suggestions welcome.


Geoffrey

[Dennis Bishop]

I like the relative positions of the avocets and where they're located vertically. My inclination would be to crop from the right, sharpen the further avocet (Nik Sharpener Pro), increase the contrast of the avocets, and lighten the background a bit.


159011

[Geoffrey Montagu]

Thanks Dennis. After posting the original I did think it need a bit more contrast on the birds. I like the sharpening of the further bird and crop. Lightening the BG does give a bit more pop to the birds.


Geoffrey

[Michael Gerald-Yamasaki]

Geoffrey,

Greetings. Silver Efex Pro 2 has a lot of tools that will allow you to take this image in a number of directions. I use SEP in my day to day workflow for color images as well. Here's a possibility:

159032

I started with one of the high key presets then backed down the brightness some. Used a lot of structure to bring the rear bird into "focus". The blacks were washed out at this point so I masked back some of the original. I also added a gradient mask to bring back some of the darker tone in the lower part of the image (darker foreground emphasizes depth). Just some ideas.

Congrats on the lifers.

Cheers,

-Michael-

[Nancy Bell]

Lovely & engaging poses of the two avocets, and I agree unusual in New Jersey this time of year! Normally one would focus on the front bird, just as you did. However in this case the 2nd bird is so strong and so much part of the image that increasing your DOF might have brought that one into focus as well, adding much to the image. Dennis has some good suggestions. And my preference is for the sepia toning as in your posting.

Here is a alternative graphic version of your image using Fractalius.

Welcome to OOTB and bring on more images!

[Anita Bower]

Welcome to this forum!
You received some excellent suggestions already.
The position of the further away bird (rule of thirds) makes it the one my eye goes to first, which is a bit of a problem because it is not fully in focus. I especially like Nancy's solution, but it is definitely OOTB and might not be to your taste.
Here is another version, starting with Nancy's image, flipping it, and cropping so that the furthest bird is not as prominent. Not a huge difference.

[Geoffrey Montagu]

Thanks everyone for your suggestions and samples. Like your use of Fractalius, Nancy.


Geoffrey

[Nancy Bell]

Geoffrey, just some ideas for you to play with! Nothing is too OOTB for us!