redshank gone wild!!!

This is a fun image that I just wanted to process and see if I could walk away with a keeper... While sitting at a small ponds edge watching the bathers, bird bathers, out of no where this redshank flies in, does some crazy running around, maybe a two second dip, and flies away. This must be a nephew of a reddish egret bc he was "electrified, on fire, on speed, and stealthy. so very interesting to witness this behavior from the pleasantly annoying disruptive squawker that appears everywhere in Iceland. Not one announcement and probably a defensive bathing behavior so a predator can be as baffled as I was. Cropped vertical. WDYT?

D850
600mm

ISO 800
6.3
1/3200

Great action captured Ann! The water droplets add a lot to the frame. I think that the bird could use a bit of additional sharpening to really make the image pop. The crop works well for me.

Very cool Ann!! Deffintly a fun pose and it must have been funny watching this guy jump around. Techs look good but a little Sharpening would be a little better as the eye is partially covered by the primary. Well done Ann

I do like the dynamic pose, but I wish the primary had cleared the eye. As noted above the image is soft.

TFS

Just an attention seeker Ann, and it got yours. Fun capture.

Great moment captured. Ditto the comments above. These guys can put on quite a show.

Ann,
I feel pretentious telling you how to sharpen but I will give it a try since it
seems that is the biggest critique of your images.
I do not know how you sharpen but this is my way...
I use a plug in, TK panels from Tony Kuyper, a well know landscape photographer and tech guy,
That sharpens and downsizes and is a really bargain for 35 bucks at times but
if you want to do it manually, after I have done all my other adjustments including
NR, etc.,
I creat a new layer, Select HIGH PASS from the filter dropdown in PS, set the radius at 2.4 maximum,
set opacity dropdown to 90 or so and use "soft light" from the "normal" dropdown.
That is my sharpening method, try it if you have not.

Very neat frame. Love the pose and that splashing water. The specular highlights in the background are great.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by dankearl

Ann,
I feel pretentious telling you how to sharpen but I will give it a try since it
seems that is the biggest critique of your images.
I do not know how you sharpen but this is my way...
I use a plug in, TK panels from Tony Kuyper, a well know landscape photographer and tech guy,
That sharpens and downsizes and is a really bargain for 35 bucks at times but
if you want to do it manually, after I have done all my other adjustments including
NR, etc.,
I creat a new layer, Select HIGH PASS from the filter dropdown in PS, set the radius at 2.4 maximum,
set opacity dropdown to 90 or so and use "soft light" from the "normal" dropdown.
That is my sharpening method, try it if you have not.

---

Thank you Dan for that consideration... I am getting used to my Nikon gear and at the same time learning new processing skills, so consider me a work in progress, thank you for sharing that info.

Beautiful Image. Bird might be a bit soft but this image still works for me.

TFS

My eyes must be getting really bad because I do not think this image is soft (but I am on my laptop so maybe if viewed large I would see what the others are seeing). The bill is tack sharp as are the feet.
Great pose- "twinkle toes" would be a good title.
It would have been killer if that feather had cleared the eye but still a great frame!
Gail