Short-billed Dowitcher

[Jay Ing]

Today's grab. Not sure if this one has enough room, I had to add some canvas on the right but - .well, I'm not good at that yet really so...
Details: D850 + Sigma 500/4 with 1.4 TC, 1/3200, 5.6 (thin 6.3 or 7 would have been better), ISO 500, HH, C1P raw, PS CCC 2018 NR/SS Output.

[Isaac Grant]

Beautiful forward wing position and details. Love the legs and feet. This is a super nice flight pose with great exposure. Water on the left edge and the top doesn't look natural. I'm guessing you extended canvas there and not the right? You can see some vertical lines on the left and horizontal on the top as well. If a content aware fill doesn't work try adding canvas and then using the nice smooth area on the right as a source for cloning. You can also put the background on its own layer and lower the opacity a bit. That helps smooth the transition zone. Sometimes you have to play with it. Meaning get a smooth transition and then do some blending as well. Bird is a Willet, not a dowitcher.

[Jay Ing]

Thanks for the specific suggestions on improving this one. That's the helpful kind of info one seeks (well, its what is most meaningful to me) when posting here at bpn. I'll give those approached a go and repost... yeah, still learning the PP techniques... so hard to devote time to when all I want to do with my free time is... go shoot! :)

Oh, and thanks for the ID... Willet had to be something, just didn't know what.



Beautiful forward wing position and details. Love the legs and feet. This is a super nice flight pose with great exposure. Water on the left edge doesn't look natural. I'm guessing you extended canvas there and not the right? Areas on the top left look off as well. You can see some vertical lines as well. If a content aware fill doesn't work try adding canvas and then using the nice smooth area on the right as a source for cloning. You can also put the background on its own layer and lower the opacity a bit. That helps smooth the transition zone. Sometimes you have to play with it. Mean get a smooth transition and then do some blending as well. Bird is a Willet, not a dowitcher.

[Bill Dix]

What a beautiful flight pose. Ditto all of Isaac's comments. In addition, it feels to me as if it could use a tad more sharpening.

[Isaac Grant]

Hey Jay, just spent some time during a break from work and did some stuff to you water. Keep in mind that it is very difficult to do this stuff on these tiny files and you will have more success with the original file. Also I did not take the time to make a perfect selection of the bird so there could be some overlap spots. Just wanted to give an idea what could be done to the file to fix your water.
Selected the bird then inveresed the selection and put the background on its own layer
lowered the opacity to 85%
I used some of the smoother areas as a source using the cloning tool to fix all of the problem areas that you had. Very difficult on a shot like this where you have so little good water to work with.
Then I flattened the layer and reselected the background
I started a new layer again
then selected gaussian blur. Picked about 10%
Then added a hide all layer by using the option button on my mac (alt on the pc ) and hitting the add layer mask icon
Then I hit B and D at the same time and selectively paint in some blur only to the top of the image where it was a still a little rough. I never use Gaussian Blurs but in a spot like this where you need to heal some cloning it is a great tool.
Flattened the image and then ran a little NR on the background at a low opacity. I used Neat Image with the Y channel at like 40%

Thoughts? Also if you need some help with what I did be sure to ask. Or even PM me and we can talk over the phone.

[Daniel Cadieux]

What a great pose you got this Willet in! It is worth the little extra TLC, as demonstrated by Isaac.

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

You mention your wish for a smaller aperture. Don't be afraid of shooting at ISO800 or higher even if it means you'll stop down a little more.
I rarely go under ISO800 myself, for shutter speed alone or to maintain a minimum f/7.1 aperture.
I wonder how sharp the head actually is in your RAW file, as it kind of looks a little bit soft. Then again, looking at it even more, as Bill said, maybe apply some more sharpening to the final output again.
See if that makes some difference.
Well done. Probably not easy to catch in flight in the first instance.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Lovely shot I like the exposure and colours my only reservation is that the head does not appear to be pin sharp.
Posting larger sized images really does emphasise minor flaws.