Spotted Sandpiper Chick

[Melissa Groo]

Canon 5D Mark II
500mm + 1.4x
Gitzo/Wimberley

1/1600 sec
f7.1
ISO 640

Perhaps this doesn't qualify for the theme as I think it's more of a chick than a juvenile. I took this at a wetlands near my house about a month and a half ago. (Can't find any shorebirds here in upstate NY right now!). Hopefully Artie or John or some other expert can age it. Its tail was lookin a bit raggy! But I thought it was very sweet, and worth working on creating a decent pic.
Pretty large crop, at least 50%. Did NR and sharpening. Cloned out a few blecchies in the water. Some work in Curves.
I hope you like it. All C & C most appreciated!

[Luis Villablanca]

Beautiful image, Melissa. I love the light, colors and the composition. It has a very
nice low angle perspective which enhanced the backgrounds but probably contributed to the OOF grass blades in front.
I feel it could be improved by cloning out the OOF blade in the front of the bird and the stick behind the legs.

[Randy Stout]

Melissa:

Lovely setting, nice shooting angle, cute bird with toasted tail,nice light.

The Bg along the birds head and back just doesn't look quite right. I think part of the effect is from your masking for NR. I can see a noisy halo in the areas I mentioned, and I think the NR in the background itself was aggressive enough that it doesn't look natural.

The obstructing grasses in the foreground mentioned.

I believe the image is certainly worth revisiting your noise reduction/masking.

Do you have any later images where the bird is clear of the foreground grasses?
Cheers

Randy

[Melissa Groo]

thanks for the feedback Luis and Randy. This is the original, only cropped a bit for a better view for you, RAndy. I don't know that my NR did anything major to it.
Will also post another where it's clear of the grasses--only problem being less than ideal HA.

[Melissa Groo]

Another, where the bird is clear of the OOF grasses.

[Randy Stout]

Melissa:

Thanks for posting the original. The background does look significantly better to my eye in the original, even though it has moderate amounts of noise. I realize the noise would look worse after a tighter crop, but my point is that the NR and the masking issue could stand a little refinement. I would remask it and apply a lesser amount of NR to see what you think of that.

I tend to be sensitive to this type of thing, hopefully some others will chime in.

The BG in the last pane looks more natural to me.

Cheers

Randy

[Grace Scalzo]

First of all, I'm really liking your subject. In all my time on forums I do not recall ever seeing one of these chicks. I'm not buying your original post due to the oof grasses in front of the baby. Yes, too noisy and all that, but it's those darn grasses that bug me. Now the one in pane #5 is a different story. Without those grasses, I can really enjoy the image. I'd crop it a little less on the top, do a bit of clean up, then to my eyes, you've got something special happening. :S3:

[Melissa Groo]

THanks Grace! Your feedback helped clarify it for me. I couldn't get over those grasses either once Randy brought it to my attention. So have cleaned up and opened up crop on top of the second image as you said, and am reposting. I think I do like this a lot better than the first post, it does seem much cleaner overall.
Randy, I appreciate your comments too, I do see what you mean, and that's helpful to learn, I need to be more sensitive to when there is too much NR (not just too little!).

[Jeff Parker]

Hmm, except for the bothersome OOF grasses obscuring the chick, I prefer the original image. The background in #5 is too busy for my taste. The whites in #5 look a bit hot to me.

[Humberto Ramos]

I agree with Randy, maybe if you apply some refine edge after the selection and before the mask you may get better results when you sharp the image...

[Melissa Groo]

Ok, did as Randy, Humberto and Jeff have suggested, I'm back at the original image. I reworked it by doing Edge Refinement before NR and sharpening (after selection). Thought this would be a useful exercise. Hope that looks better. What do you think Randy and Humberto? Any better?
Thanks so much to all for the help/comments.

[Cheryl Arena Molennor]

Melissa, both images are very nice IMO. I like the low angle and dof in both as well as the environment and colors. After scrolling all the way down, I see all my suggestions in my head were addressed and I think each final post looks great.

[Arthur Morris]

Pane 11 is the spectacular winner. To my mind it is the far stronger frame of the two. I'd list the pluses but I love everything about it so the list would be too long.

[Randy Stout]

Melissa:

Nicely done on the repost!

Congrats

Randy

[Robert Holguin]

Wonderful shot. Great low angle and your final repost of the original is superb. Well done.

[Humberto Ramos]

Also like the repost, well done...

[Grace Scalzo]

You did a cracker jack job with the repost on the first one. So now you've got two (at least) from this series. On the second one, I'd tone down the reeds in the bg and be quite happy with that one as well.

[Melissa Groo]

Thanks so much to all for the guidance and comments, it is much appreciated!

[Raul Padilla]

great the use of environmet for bkg, is like stay inside the photo, it work very good