Dinner - Tern from July Flight workshop

[pat lillich]

Trying all the tools everyone has shown me over the last couple of weeks. I suspect these images will improve once the novelty has worn off and I don't play with the images as much.

anyway - I set black and white points (I think the blue is now too intense, though looking at the original, there isn't much difference) and used highlights/shadows to bring out detail in the underwing and body. NIK filters NR and sharpening - and a little extra unsharp mask on the fish and the birds eye. Cropped a little in LR.

I kept moving the bird around a little in the crop and never could decide on where he looked best - this one seemed best when I did it - but now I'm not liking it much....

Nikon d300, 300 f/28, 1/2000 sec f/8 at 420 mm handheld iso 400

welcome any suggestions for improving!
thanks for looking.

[Bob Decker]

It's easy to like this image, Mitch. Lots of nice detail in the feathers... tack sharp eyes, both on the bird and its dinner. I'm at work and, as such, am always suspect of this monitor, but I seem to be seeing a bit of noise in the blue. Like I said, could easily be this monitor. Good job on catching a fast flier.

[Deborah Harrison]

I like it, find terns very hard to capture with the intense contrast of black and white. However you've managed to do it and create a tack sharp image. My only comment is that, viewed this size, the under/shadow wing looks grainy, maybe due to adjustments. A minor comment given the difficulty getting a decent image of these birds in the first place (in my hands, apologies to the experts on this forum!)

[pat lillich]

hey Bob and Deborah - thank you - I figured i would see if i could do something with it that smoothed the graininess under the wing and in the blue more - I tried lightening the underside of the wing just a little with an exposure brush in LR, and also desaturated the blue just a little. Then in ps, did the shadows/highlights just on the upper body and did a seperate selection of the underwing, used NIK define to reduce the noise, and then faded that layer so it just reduced it a bit....

do you think this is any improvement?
appreciate your input!!

[Lance Peters]

Hi Pat - are you using noise reduction on the whole image including the bird??

[pat lillich]

Hey Lance,

The first time I just used it on the background. But the underside of the wing on the left got really grainy. So this time i tried a little on the underwing. But that looks kind of wrong. Perhaps i just shouldn't be trying to lighten that area.

[Lance Peters]

Hi Pat - IMHO just want to be careful running it on the BIrd - Personally would rather see a little noise than a loss of detail. Noise of course will come from using shadow/highlight and lightening thats why it is important to get your exposure as close as possible in camera.
Did well here - Good HA - Nice catchlight in the eye and the BONUS fish to go with it.

IMHO - lots of folks tend to over process their images - get it close in camera and then its easy - simple and quick.

[pat lillich]

hey Lance,

yeah - my husband, who is a much better, more knowledgeable photographer, has been telling me that for portrait style photographs, I need to ignore anything that isn't big in the view finder. but i'm kind of mule-headed and have to try all the wrong things first before I'm willing to believe. or maybe its just my learning style - i learn more by doing than by listening - frustrating for people who are trying to teach me, i know.

But in this case, this bird filled the view finder, and it was not much of a crop - so i was thinking there might be some way to successfully lighten that dark area without making too much noise. I like the photo anyway - just like to experiment and see what can be done.

thank you again for your help and patience!

[Arthur Morris]

Hi Pat and welcome, and thanks a ton for your membership support. The repost is an improvement with the under-wing detail. The blue could be toned down a bit more. And you might wish to add a bit of canvas in front of the bird even though you did a great job of framing here, especially with the bird relatively high in the sky. And, for that position you got the very best wing position.

Is this an elegant? Were you with Jim and Doug?

[pat lillich]

thanks Artie,

yes, my husband and I got to participate in Jim and Doug's flight school in July. We had a great time, and I learned a lot - especially that I need to be patient and wait to take the pictures when the birds fill the frame as much as possible -

thank you for your suggestions and I'll try adding the canvas and toning down the blue a more. I think i need to look at photos that the blue sky looks right on, and then see if i can approximate a similar value ...

thanks again!

[Arthur Morris]

Thanks for getting back to me. There are lots of images here with "good" blue skies :)