Mirror

[Ian Cassell]

Canon 7D
Canon EF 400mm f/5.6L
1/1250 sec f/7.1 ISO 800

Sharpening and crop for composition in CS5 Also got rid of some water debris.
NR on BG in Noiseware pro

The stilt chicks have hatched, but are much too far away for my 400 :(
I spent some time with the adults instead

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[Kerry Perkins]

Ian, I think you know what I am going to say, but I will say it anyway... Your red channel is blown, with values at 255. All it would take is 1/3 stop less on the exposure - in this case I would favor the shutter speed and shoot this at 1/1600. You also need a CCW rotation. Look at the reflection and line up features vertically - they should match! The angle of reflection equals the angle of incidence, and vice versa, so when objects in reflections are lined up vertically the angle equals zero and the image is level. In other words, a mirror never lies!

[Ian Cassell]

Aaaaaargh!

Thanks, Kerry. I went back and played with it. I rotated it and now things line up (not sure how I missed that the first time) and tried to recover my whites.

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[Kerry Perkins]

Good job Ian, much better on both counts. An easy way to fix rotations like this (when there is a clear reflection) is to use the ruler tool in PS. Draw a vertical line with the tool between two points in the two parts of the image (if you have a good eye in the reflection, this is a good point to use). Then go to image | image rotation | arbitrary and you will see an angle already entered in the box. Click ok and your image will be corrected.

Sweet image and nicely captured. I like these little birds a lot and always feel lucky when I get a chance to photograph them!

[Hazel Grant]

Note to Kerry: Thanks for the "how to" re rotation! I tried it on this one and it worked! Making a note for future use---saves so much time and guessing!

[Ian Cassell]

Thanks, Kerry. Yes, Hazel, I tried it too. I've wasted eons of time in the past guessing on an arbitrary rotation and this was so quick! This is just another reason why I would love some intensive hands-on photoshop instruction. I watch a zillion instructional videos, but they're just not the same as having someone lean over your shoulder.

[Bob Miller]

Hi Ian....I like this image. It has a artistic composition that I am enjoying. I do think your repost is an improvement! Nice work!