Backlit plover

[Alex Becker]

Hi all,

A piping plover taken right at sunrise at Sandy Hook NJ. The light / scene was really pinkish red so I've tried to keep that as well as bring some depth back into the bird. Background is a wave breaking. In post, NR, sharpened, cropped / leveled the image about 20%.

Camera: Nikon D500
Lens: 200-500mm f/5.6E
Specs: 1/640 ISO 1000 f/5.6

Thanks for looking and commenting on prior posts!
Alex

[John Mack]

Great low angle. Love the light gives the image a dreamy feel. The comp works for me as well.

[Daniel Cadieux]

I like the low angle, subject, layer of in-focus pebbles. I even like the specular highlights in the FG. I'm having a tough time getting into the lighting you got here though. I realize this is likely what you saw, but I wish it was even more backlit (almost silhouette). Not sure for now. I'll come back to it later and see if it grows :-) Don't get me wrong though, I do love what you went for!

[Isaac Grant]

I'm with Daniel on this one. Pebbles look super cool and you have a nice pose. Specifically I like that you got something different of this heavily photographed species. I think Daniel is spot on. I would prefer either totally backlit or with the sun at your back. While this is pretty, I think that both of the alternatives would be even more dramatic.

[Mike Hitchen]

I really like the dreamy effect on this.
It may sound odd, but I find the sharp focus on the pebbles a bit distracting - the bird being in part-shadow loses some acuity whereas the pebbles being edge-lit are very sharp. I am not sure at the moment what the answer is, but I guess a good measure is the immediate thought on opening the image and in this case I like it.

[William Dickson]

I like what you were trying to do here Alex. But, its not quite working for me. I'm wondering if you added some more contrast it may work better!

Will

[Alex Becker]

Thanks all -- much appreciated. I'll look at the post a bit and see what some tweaks can do. Always good to experiment and I may try to go more silhouette in the future. Best,