Osprey up tree

[Paul Burdett]

The weather has been better here in Brisbane, so I decided to head out to a nearby pier where I often see an Osprey perched on a pole waiting for the fishermen to drop a fish or two. However, as I was driving on the road leading up to the pier I saw what I thought was a Cormorant perched up high on a tree, but then questioned myself and reversed back to park along the side of the road. Luckily I did, as this Osprey was perched there. I took around 100 shots, as I've never seen some of the poses presented to me, although many were with the Osprey facing away from me. Most of the poses are with wings out, or pruning, but too many with less than favourable eye contact. Anyhow...I thought I'd post this one to start with. Yes, the sky was this colour. Cheers.

D500/500PF, 1/1250th sec@f8, iso500, manual mode HH.

[David Roach]

Usually don't care for the ultra blue skies but this image looks like an excellent piece of graphic art. Love it... TFS

[Kurt Bowman]

I like the pose and you managed to get a nice head turn. You also handled the shadows well.

[Paul Burdett]

Thanks so much David and Kurt.
David: I agree with the comment on the sky...I'm hoping for a better one next time. Cheers my friend.

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Paul ... like the ruffled look of the fish eagle .
Lovely details and the tones are quite good overall .
White balance is a bit too much on the blue side for my taste , but you might like it that blueish .

Without needing to pixel peep , I have the impression you might have used S/H in Photoshop .... if so , you should have masked out the sky when performing that filter or something similar :w3 . And I would used it to a lower degree or opacity .

Nice one

TFS Andreas

[Paul Burdett]

Hi Andreas. You have a keen eye! I haven't used the S/H adjustment for a very long time...preferring to use luminosity masks, but I thought it worked well here...but perhaps too much as you say. I also agree that the w/b could be adjusted. Cheers.

[Dorian Anderson]

I think you did as well as you could have given that the bird was above and oriented away from you. Head angle is OK, but the ruffled feathers look good. I also like the bit of underwing peaking out on the left wing.

Detail on the foot looks great, but I wish they received direct light.

[Paul Burdett]

Thanks Dorian. I agree with you on the feet lighting. Cheers.

[Andreas Liedmann]

...preferring to use luminosity masks, but I thought it worked well here...but perhaps too much as you say. .

Hi Paul , good to hear that you stay away from that S/H filter ..... using luminosity masks is a much more controlled way to create the same effect .
You might have overdone the shadow lifting ... matter of taste .
For me the " bigger issue " is the blurring that you must have applied to the mask .... resulting in some faint wide haloing around the subject . Easy to avoid by by either masking the blurred mask or use " surface blur filter " to avoid the " haloing around the edges of the subject and perch . Do you know how to make them more visible ?? The haloing !

For more info .... ask mister google about " masking the mask " in photoshop

Cheers Andreas

[Paul Burdett]

Hi Andreas. I think the haloing (only noticed around the head until you pointed the rest out) may be the result of Topaz sharpening. I didn't use any masking in this edit...just adjustments in acr and photoshop, including Topaz denoise and sharpening (applied to the head area only). I'll go back and have a look at editing the raw again. Thank you for the tip on using surface blur. I'll also check out "masking the blur"...don't know that one. Thanks for your keen eye and tips. Cheers.