PSA 2010-2011 "Best of the Best"

[Jim Fenton]

Photographic Society of America Best of the Best out of everything in the 2010-2011 Interclub competition which included clubs from other countries as well :)

I loved this one the moment I saw it in the viewfinder.

[Arthur Morris]

Mazel tov. I loved this the moment I saw it too. Tricky ID for the non-shorebird folks.

[Greg Basco]

Jim, I love this image. Congrats on your prize!

Cheers,
Greg Basco

[Marina Scarr]

Deserved, Jim. This is extremely artistic. Congratulations on your big win!

[Doug Brown]

Love this photo Jim! Congratulations!

[Danny J Brown]

Jim -- You are the master. I've been following your work for five years now, I think. This image is the reason why!

DB

[denise ippolito]

Awesome and well deserved!

[Roger Clark]

Jim,

Outstanding! Love the symmetry.

Congratulations.

Roger

[John Chardine]

Quite superb.

[Bill Jobes]

Congratulations, Jim on creating such a wonderful work of art !

What can you tell us about the location and shooting conditions, photo gear and settings, and the steps you took to bring it to this level ?

[jack williamson]

Congratulations Jim, easy decision for the judges here. Excellent!

Jack

[Arthur Morris]

Hey Jim,

I would love to see exactly what the original looked like. Can you please post a JPEG from the RAW converted straight-up?

[Ed Cordes]

Outstanding image. Congrats on your well deserved recognition.

[Tony Whitehead]

Fabulous image, Jim. Well deserved. I love these type of images on a white BG and this is one of the best I have ever seen.

[Jim Fenton]

Artie.....
Out on the beach in Plymouth photographing red knots and other shorebirds till later next week. Once I return home I willwill be happy to post the original. What is presented in the middle to right side of the entire image. Left side which I didn't want in the final presentation had two or three other little shorebirds in some less than attractive grass. I specifically photographed it this way to give me what i envisioned the final creation to look like. Again, after I return home I will post the original for you.

[Arthur Morris]

Many thanks Jim. I look forward to seeing the full frame orig. It's great to see what folks did, what they were thinking, and what they came up with after the fact.

[Arthur Morris]

I should have asked, are you getting some good juvenile knots???

[Jim Fenton]

Artie and others had requested that I post the original full frame images so here they are.

It was very overcast this day...just the way I like it when creating high key images.

The first is a straight NEF to jpeg conversion ion Nikon Capture. Yup...it's green. It's green because I always use a custom white balance preset which brings all three color channels to even stevens on the in camera histogram...which in turn allows for a more optimal exposure and also less noise as you are driving more light into the file. I also shot this with a custom "flat" tone file as I always use and no sharpening as again, it renders a more truthful histogram to judge exposure by in the camera.

When I first saw the angles of the grass, I knew this could end up being a great composition if only a bird would come and sit in close proximity. There was a breeze on this spot for 45 minutes as birds shuffled from the left to this spot. After 45 minutes the bird I wanted moved into positioned, preened and really stirred up the water along with the birds on the left constantly shuffling for position. Finally the breeze subsided, the water calmed down and I managed three frames before the subject strutted away.

As you can see, there are other birds on the left side of the frame. I had to record this image like this given the distance away even with a 600VR and TC14EII. The intent was always to use the single individual.

The image in the next post is also a straight conversion from Nikon Capture with the exception of the WB being corrected.

Techs for the image are as follows:

Nikon D300s, 600VR, TC14EII, ISO 640, f8 (I wanted to make sure I had the subject and grass in focus), 1/100, CW metering, NearUniWB preset, flat tone curve, and the important part....+2.7 EV as this scene was back-lit. I knew that would light the subject fairly well and drive the water toward the white side.

The most important thing with these types of images I create besides exposure, positioning and framing is to be able to see these natural setups before the subjects even exist in the frame many times. Tide is also of the utmost importance because even though this is a salt panne, except on flood tides the water level doesn't change BUT...when the tise is low on the flats there are no birds here as they are out feeding. When the tide comes up, the birds come in here to roost.

Here is the straight conversion:

[Jim Fenton]

Here is the green image from above with nothing more than a WB setting in Nikon Capture.

Once saved as TIFF, I cropped in in PS5, did some cleanup, shadows / highlights, selective color adjustments to remove the cyan hue levels to drive the water fully white, curves and of course sharpening. I'm guessing I likely did image rotation adjustments as well.

I should note that when I submitted this into the club digital competition, I didn't submit it in nature but rather the general category. I haven't figured out what they will and won't accept for cropping / removal of items from an image so I thought I'd rather not risk it. It did in the end take Best of the Best in PSA international club competition for all images submitted in every division and category.

[allanrube]

Great!! Thanks for posting the original too.

[Arthur Morris]

Hey Jim, Thanks for posting the original and for the lessons. As for the green stuff, I am happily in the dark :). I guess that I was more surprised by the amount of clean-up that is permitted than by the green original. Makes me feel less like a digital criminal :e3.

Thanks and congrats again.

artie

[Jim Fenton]

Thats why I entered it in the geneeral category and not the nature category. Heck... Painters change things as they go along all the time :)