American Oystercatcher

[Ed Vatza]

from this morning at Sandy Hook, NJ.

Canon 50D; Canon 300mm f/2.8L IS lens w/ 2x TC; tripod-mounted

1/2500 sec @ f/5.6; ISO 640; 0EV; Sunny WB

[Peter Wallack]

Great shot in need of a bit more post production on Phtoshop if you have CS2 - CS4. Image menu down to Adjust right and then down to SHADOWS/HIGHLIGHTS. These are sliders which will take you 20 to 50 seconds to figure out. You can tone down the highlights on the white belly and high toned legs. You might also want to Saturate a bit with yellow to get the legs a truer yellow for the bird. Saturate is also under IMAGE-ADJUST.

[Randy Stout]

Ed:

I like the sharpness, angle and overall exposure. The reds seem oversaturated to me. The HA is perhaps ever so slightly away, but its very close.


I like the surf in the BG, but wish it didn't intersect with the birds head.

Looks like you had fun!

Randy

[Axel Hildebrandt]

I like the angle and eye contact. Another vote for toning down the whites and legs and desaturating the bill a few points.

[Juan Carlos Vindas]

A very nice bird for sure.

Love the active BG. It would have been better with the light angle covering the whole bird but it's hard sometimes to have the bird in the perfect LA. I would suggest to tone down the whites a little.

[Ed Vatza]

Great shot in need of a bit more post production on Phtoshop if you have CS2 - CS4. Image menu down to Adjust right and then down to SHADOWS/HIGHLIGHTS. These are sliders which will take you 20 to 50 seconds to figure out. You can tone down the highlights on the white belly and high toned legs. You might also want to Saturate a bit with yellow to get the legs a truer yellow for the bird. Saturate is also under IMAGE-ADJUST.

Appreciate your feedback. I use a combination of Lightroom 2 and Photoshop CS4. In this case I did tone down highlights in LR. Adjustments were made using Exposure and Recovery for highlights and Blacks for Shadows as well as some adjustments to clarity and vibrance. The histogram looks really good.




I like the sharpness, angle and overall exposure. The reds seem oversaturated to me. The HA is perhaps ever so slightly away, but its very close.

Interesting about the reds. I made a series of images of this bird and in all except for the three made at this angle which is, I believe, parallel to the focal plane, the red bill is duller and full of specular highlights. At this angle, the bill photographed as a perfect red. No spots at all. I guess I could back off the saturation a tad but I kinda like it as it is.

[Ed Vatza]

For comparison.

In LR, I dropped the Exposure from 0.00 to -0.08 and the red Saturation to -12. Everything else remained unchanged.

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Interesting about the reds. I made a series of images of this bird and in all except for the three made at this angle which is, I believe, parallel to the focal plane, the red bill is duller and full of specular highlights. At this angle, the bill photographed as a perfect red. No spots at all. I guess I could back off the saturation a tad but I kinda like it as it is.

Often this happens during jpg sRGB conversion. I'm sure the bill in the TIFF file looks not oversaturated.

[Randy Stout]

Ed:

I find that I have to carefully check every image that I convert to jpeg for posting here, both on my own screen and how it previews on the site. This is despite watching my colorspaces.

Randy

[Roman Kurywczak]

OK, first to Ed,
Repost looks much better on the reds......and the slight brightness on the whites is an easy fix. Nice pose and angle.....might just think about removing the highlight behind neck of OC.
Now Peter.....I do wonder as to the motivation for posting the PhD and the Diplomat status......were any of those photography? At BPN we try to encourage and offer advice for possible improvement.....people can accept or reject those recommendations.....but calling the people participating here "bulls in a china shop".....I find very distateful especially from someone who has only been around for 3 days to make that assesment. I also find it quite distateful that you want to change the direction of BPN to your tastes after 3 days. I believe most of out members and participants have much to offer and I feel you could have presented your recommendations to Ed and others in a more tactful way.

I did look at your BPN galleries and since you are very interested in facts here is my assesment; Most if not all the images posted aren't sharp. Speaking as a just converted film shooter.....I do wonder if it is possibly the scanner or the PP'ing?.....as I'd imagine the originals are sharp. since we can't see the originals....we can only asses the ones posted. I do hope you will respect other peoples opinions and continue to participate in a positive manner.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Well, I'm only a High School graduate and current Public Servant so I don't know if I'm qualified to offer critique...but here goes:

Overall I like the image. Good low angle, and exposure looks about right. I agree some of the highlights could be toned down, including the legs (P.S. I find the pinkish hue to them correct as posted) - I also like the small wave approaching the oystercatcher. The larger one, although nice too, could have some of its specular highlights removed - especially the one touching the neck. A slightly better angle, and an additional round of sharpening would have done the image good.


I really am getting tired of all the negative critiques from people who can't instruct the positive post production steps to take your valueable image - and othe valueable images - to the level of world class image. PLEASE give me this chance to change the model of instruction here.


Peter, I'm a bit surprised and taken aback by this statement of yours. This site has always been about constructive critiques - and we achieve that, and beyond. People join the site knowing beforehand their images will be evaluated and critiqued...yes that means pointing out the not so good points. There are plenty of resources found throughout the forums that point out how to manipulate the images to make them better - as well as in-camera techniques too. Can you imagine, as a simple example, having to explain every single step on how to even simply find the S/H tool on every posted image that needs it! Have you checked out the Educational Resources for all the FREE advice and suggestions given by many top pros, including many basic steps used in post-processing? The model of instruction here is second to none, with valuable participation by all of us publishers, moderators, forum members, and forum participants alike. There is no need for you, or anyone else, to change it - especially after only been participating for a few days...