Skimmer wading

[Ron Sprunger]

Nikon D7000, 500 f/4
1/500 @f/5.0, ISO 450, evaluative +1
Fort DeSoto last April

Used the new PS6 patch tool to get rid of an OOF companion, and added a bit of canvas on right. Used Detail Extractor and Tonal Contrast in Color Efex Pro 4.
I notice the red comes up a bit electric in the web version -- more subdued in print and Photoshop. Is that the conversion to sRGB causing that? I added no saturation at all, but did add 5 points of black to the reds.

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[Ron Sprunger]

I think I found the culprit on the exaggerated reds. Export in PS6 had "Convert to sRGB" checked, which I hadn't done in PS5. I think this is more the way I want it to appear:

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[Robert Holguin]

Wonderful shot. Lovely light, excellent detail in the blacks and whites, love the small waves, and I really like the colors in the repost.
Well done.

[Frank Schauf]

Excellent pose and details.

[Ron Sprunger]

Thanks guys, I appreciate you taking the time to look and comment. The quality of images posted in this forum is rather intimidating, but thanks to the guidance of all the seasoned birders/photographers (along with a lot of Photoshop practice), I feel like I'm making progress. Now if I could just get out to shoot more...

[Ishmeet Sahni]

very nice detail.... very well taken.

[Grace Scalzo]

Very nice exposure, Ron with good detail in the blacks and the whites. You are far better in post processing than me, so you'll know how to do this if you want...I think that the wave under the skimmer's tail looks too sharp. I don't sharpend bg elements (Usually), and I would prefer seeing that softer so as to draw less attention.

[Ron Sprunger]

I wondered about that Grace -- just didn't know whether softening the very much in-focus water was a good thing. I'll trust your eye, and tackle it this evening. Incidentally, no sharpening at all was applied to it, but it was in focus and of course some contrast was added in post, accentuating the sharpness.

[Grace Scalzo]

Thanks for explaining that, Ron. Maybe it is the contrast caused by the shadow in the water that's giving it that effect.

[gail bisson]

This is really nice Ron. I like the repost and the panorama crop. Really nice light and the blacks and whites look great. I hadn't noticed the crispiness of the wave but now that Grace has mentioned it I agree it needs softening,
Gail
PS I have started (thanks to Randy Stout's expert advice) to export my files from color effex back to CS5 and do a hide all mask and brush only the areas I want to have the tonal contrast, instead of using the tedious + or - points in Color Effex

[Ron Sprunger]

Thanks for the tip, Gail. I've been reluctant to mask the filter in PS because I typically open out of ACR as a smart object, giving me a way to go back to ACR a time or two to fine-tune. With smart objects, when you mask one you mask all smart filters that you might choose to use. The way my workflow is going now, doing much less in ACR, that's probably no longer an issue, though I've been using the U-Point stuff for a couple years and am pretty accustomed to it. Just didn't apply it to the in-focus water, and probably should have.

FYI now that I'm back at home and can see something on the monitor, I've decided that the darkness of the in-focus water is mostly the unmitigated reflection of the Skimmer I removed from just behind my bird's tail. No matter how clever I think I'm getting, something always comes back to bite me. Will have a try tonight at taking the edge off, and maybe lightening that dark patch of water.

Thank you both so much for taking the time to offer advice. It is of great value to me.

[Melissa Groo]

Great job on this skimmer, Ron. I spent a bit of time on them recently in Florida and found it hard to get a decent shot of them, the eye often seems obscured or too dark. You've pulled out wonderful detail in the blacks while controlling the whites. Good call on the pano crop too.

[Ron Sprunger]

They're so long an low, there doesn't seem to be much choice on the pano :) Thanks Melissa.