Hooded Reflection

[Brian Sump]

About 830am - mostly clear morning with occasional thin clouds.

I spotted this stud about 100 yds down the shoreline. He slowly meandered toward me and I was in perfect position. He came within about 20 yds, turned slightly and I ripped off about 25 shots.

There are other shots in the sequence with beautiful, varying colors and exaggerations of ripples. I chose this one with the soft, creamy blue and with a reflection that was probably most life-like.

Nikon D500
Sigma 500mm f4
ISO 100
f4
1/800
Handheld
Single point AF
Processed in LR

PS - when I look at the image on the screen here it is quite degraded from what I see in my photo viewer. Normal? When you assess these, do you download or open in a new tab and view?

[Arthur Morris]

Hi Brian and welcome to BPN. Great first post. Too bad it was so windy :) The image is sharp, the raised crest is mega, and the bow wave and wake are perfect, as is the framing. In a perfect world, the bird would have been swimming slightly toward you rather than slightly away. Sometimes in a situation like this, a soft squeak might get the bird to turn its head back toward you. Or, it might scare it to Connecticut ...

with love, artie

[Brian Sump]

Hi Brian and welcome to BPN. Great first post. Too bad it was so windy :) The image is sharp, the raised crest is mega, and the bow wave and wake are perfect, as is the framing. In a perfect world, the bird would have been swimming slightly toward you rather than slightly away. Sometimes in a situation like this, a soft squeak might get the bird to turn its head back toward you. Or, it might scare it to Connecticut ...

with love, artie

Artie, thanks for having me!

Appreciate the feedback. He was a very patient subject :-)

I do have a couple amazing shots (similar) where he was swimming at me. For feedback on one of those, just wait 24 hrs and post making a reference to this post?

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Brian .. looks good to me overall . I am with you about the softness of the water ....

Artie has raised a good point about the shooting angle .... and the scare to Connecticut :bg3::bg3::bg3:. By knowing it is difficult ... I might try to keep more details visible in the dark parts of the plumage .

TFS Andreas

[Brian Sump]

Hi Brian .. looks good to me overall . I am with you about the softness of the water ....

Artie has raised a good point about the shooting angle .... and the scare to Connecticut :bg3::bg3::bg3:. By knowing it is difficult ... I might try to keep more details visible in the dark parts of the plumage .

TFS Andreas

Andreas, thank you. Are you referring more specifically to the neck? If so, suggestion on process for that?

[Andreas Liedmann]

Indeed that neck region .... suggestion would be , stay away from the blacks in the whole process until the very end and avoid global contrast adjustments ! Just my take . I know sounds like a very global suggestion .... but is a starting point :w3. Staying away from the blacks means to me .... avoid using the levels / curves / selective color blacks sliders or black point , until the very end of the editing . Hope you understand what I am talking about .

[Brian Sump]

Indeed that neck region .... suggestion would be , stay away from the blacks in the whole process until the very end and avoid global contrast adjustments ! Just my take . I know sounds like a very global suggestion .... but is a starting point :w3. Staying away from the blacks means to me .... avoid using the levels / curves / selective color blacks sliders or black point , until the very end of the editing . Hope you understand what I am talking about .

Ah yes, I understand that. I can still go back and adjust to decrease the strength of blacks and potentially reduce contrast and get closer to your suggestion, yes?

[Andreas Liedmann]

For the best result you should have a master file with adjustment layers , then you have the most control about all the elements .

If you start with a flattened TIF .... good luck .

[Andreas Liedmann]

Brian another thing is , you have no embedded color profile .

You need to convert to sRGB color profile and save it with an embedded color profile . Otherwise your colors may look weird in different browsers and different OS . Standard for web images is sRGB .... and most of the monitors can only display that color space !!

[Brian Sump]

For the best result you should have a master file with adjustment layers , then you have the most control about all the elements .

If you start with a flattened TIF .... good luck .

Indeed I do, in Lightroom :-)

[Andreas Liedmann]

.... as said good luck

[Brian Sump]

Brian another thing is , you have no embedded color profile .

You need to convert to sRGB color profile and save it with an embedded color profile . Otherwise your colors may look weird in different browsers and different OS . Standard for web images is sRGB .... and most of the monitors can only display that color space !!

Feeling pretty noobish right now Andreas. I checked in PS, and in the Export settings, it is checked next to "Convert to sRGB". I ought to think that should be effective, correct?

[Andreas Liedmann]

My proof ....

[Brian Sump]

My proof ....

Ok I'll investigate. Thank you for your time.

[Brian Sump]

My proof ....

I see this. I am confused but I do appreciate your time Andreas so I'll not bother you further.

186042

[William Dickson]

Apart from what's already been said regarding the direction of the bird and the HA...I really like this. Beautiful detail on the bird....I love the water.

Will

[Brian Sump]

Apart from what's already been said regarding the direction of the bird and the HA...I really like this. Beautiful detail on the bird....I love the water.

Will

William, very much appreciated. Thanks for chiming in!

[Jack Backs]

Welcome. Lovely first image. As stated the only quibble I would have is the bird angling away from you.

[Brian Sump]

Welcome. Lovely first image. As stated the only quibble I would have is the bird angling away from you.

Jack, glad to be here thanks!

I have one where he is coming toward me and still has great reflection. Will post tomorrow.

[John Mack]

Love the crest and that blue water. Like the wake as well.

[Brian Sump]

Love the crest and that blue water. Like the wake as well.

John, thanks for chiming in!

[arash_hazeghi]

I like the low angle and the clean water. Artie provided touched on the most relevant issue which is the angle of the bird, the rest is pretty good as is. You can attempt to open up the darks but there is not much detail there in a merganser anyway.

TFS

[Brian Sump]

I like the low angle and the clean water. Artie provided touched on the most relevant issue which is the angle of the bird, the rest is pretty good as is. You can attempt to open up the darks but there is not much detail there in a merganser anyway.

TFS

Good stuff Ari. I did pull it back up, reduced contrast and found some detail in the neck area.

Looking forward to diving into the C1P tutorial.

[Jonathan Ashton]

I see the image was saved as png as opposed to jpeg, I am not familiar wit the former but does that affect sRGB?

I like the bow wave and the colours of the bird, I know you have some beautiful light over there but the water does look a rather electric blue to me.

[Joseph Przybyla]

Hi Brian, from the home of Coor's Beer, welcome to BPN. I like the image a lot. Already noted that the merganser is angling slightly away. I look forward to more of your images. Thank you for sharing.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Awesome subject. Nice details. Yes, bummer it did not at least turn its head a bit back but I can see why you like it with that beautiful silky water. The bow-wake is excellent. I find that LR's shadows slider often does a great job (when used judiciously of course).

[Brian Sump]

Hi Brian, from the home of Coor's Beer, welcome to BPN. I like the image a lot. Already noted that the merganser is angling slightly away. I look forward to more of your images. Thank you for sharing.

Joe, thanks for the welcome! Yes, Coors is just a 5 min drive :-)

[Brian Sump]

I see the image was saved as png as opposed to jpeg, I am not familiar wit the former but does that affect sRGB?

I like the bow wave and the colours of the bird, I know you have some beautiful light over there but the water does look a rather electric blue to me.

Jonathan, png can retain the color profile but I realized I was "quick saving" in PS and not embedding the color profile. Will do from now on.

I actually did not touch the water - only overall color, contrast, tone and sharpening. It was the most unique within the entire series of shots on this bird.

[Brian Sump]

Awesome subject. Nice details. Yes, bummer it did not at least turn its head a bit back but I can see why you like it with that beautiful silky water. The bow-wake is excellent. I find that LR's shadows slider often does a great job (when used judiciously of course).

Daniel, I certainly use the shadow slider in LR and I actually did not touch it on this photo, but it was just for overall 'feel', not intentionally to alter the wake areas. That said, were you implying that using that slider could have enhanced the bow wake area?

[Daniel Cadieux]

Hey Brian, no, the bow-wake is perfect as is! I was only implying for shadows, but not necessarily for this image.

[Brian Sump]

Hey Brian, no, the bow-wake is perfect as is! I was only implying for shadows, but not necessarily for this image.

Excellent, thanks!