Something a bit different

[Glenn Pure]

170910
I hope I'm not being too bold here posting a somewhat different treatment - I'm relatively new to BPN and this forum. These White-fronted Terns were lined up along the handrail of a pier at Rawene in New Zealand and weren't too bothered by people. I tried quite a few different shots but liked this particular treatment/composition and near absence of colour. Nearly a full frame crop.

Thanks in advance for looking and for any comments you may wish to provide.

Technical: Canon 80D with EF 100-400 MkII at 400mm handheld. Manual exposure 1/2000 sec, f7.1, ISO 800. Processed in Canon DPP 4 (digital lens optimiser @ 50, sharpness = 3, crop, lighting adjustments, default NR) then exported 16 bit TIFF to Photoshop Elements with Neat Image NR plugin. Very light NR applied to in-focus bird and stronger NR to background. Lightened shadows on in-focus bird's eye. Sharpened (Sharpness tool) after final size reduction.

[Jay Ing]

Nothing wrong with different. I like this very much. Nice detail and exposure on your main subject! Thanks for posting!

[Steve Kaluski]

Certainly different Glenn.

If you open up the Highlights, Shadows & Whites you will find you get a truck load more from the image. Can't remember if DPP has a Tonal Curve too, but again opening up the Lights in that will also help, just looks a bit dark, albeit that the exposure is good.

TFS
Steve

[Jay Shah]

I like different hence thumbs up.

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

Crop more from the LRC, IOW, bring the main subject lower and to the right.

I do actually love this frame! Well done!

[Glenn Pure]

Thanks to Jay I, Steve, Jay S and Akos. Steve, I tried to fix the lighting in the shot along the lines of your suggestion - I did this in PSE since all the detail needed was in the TIFF. I had pushed these adjustments about as far as DPP would take them (there is a tone curve in there with white point, grey point, black point, shadow and highlight adjustments). On review, the OP did look dirty and dark. I don't know what I was thinking. So I've lightened shadows overall and added a bit of midtone contrast. Also lightened shadows selectively for the bird's eye over and above the global adjustments. I think it makes a big difference. I'm reluctant to lighten the in-focus bird's black cap any further as it is meant to be black and is starting to not look that way. Any further and it will look unnatural. There is detail visible in there now, albeit subtle. The only thing I hope is that I haven't overdone it!

170929

Akos, here is a recrop along the lines you've suggested - taking the crop much further made it look unbalanced to me. I'd value opinions on that.
170930

[Giovanni Frescura]

For me the second is better.
I like too much this shot is very nice for mr.
I will try also b/bn becouse the only color pint is a bit on the beak..
A question :
you decided to make burn the backround also if give an idea of the second bird ..is it right ? ..but why you used f.7,1 ? Could better ..I think,,if this was your idea f.5,6....but the shoot is ok!!

[gail bisson]

I like this Glenn.
The repost really improves everything about the in focus tern.
If this was mine, I would eliminate the OOF specular highlights on the bill of the OOF tern and consider cloning out the wave in LUC. I agree with cropping a bit off RHS to eliminate the neck and adding back the same amount to the LHS of frame if you have it.
I love the sweeping lines at the bottom of the frame,
Gail

[Daniel Cadieux]

I love the concept! This is what artistic bird photography is all about. Although I do not love the oof tern with its bill cut off at right edge, I like pretty much everything else from that point on to the left edge. I would have experimented with wide open aperture frames too, but I think you did well in seeing the potential in this opportunity!

[Glenn Pure]

Thank you all for your comments. Taking on board the comments on crop from Akos and Gail, I have reconsidered and redone that (below). I've also toned down the specular bill highlights on the rear OOF bird but left the top left wave. Sorry to draw this out but I thought it was worth one final go.
171039

[gail bisson]

Looks much better! Very nice frame and well seen.
Gail