Royal Terns

I captured this image last April at Ft. Desoto County Park in Pinellas County, Florida. I worked it up yesterday. Comments and critique welcomed and appreciated. Thank you for viewing.

Nikon D500
Nikon 500mm F/5.6 VR AF-S ED PF, camera and lens supported by a Oben carbon fiber monopod with a Wimberly MonoGimbal head
1/3200 F/5.6 Matrix Metering EV 0 ISO 560 Auto 1 WB, image captured at 500mm (750mm 35mm Equivalent)
Post processed in Lightroom Classic. Photoshop CC 2021 and Topaz Denoise AI
Cropped for composition and presentation

Great timing Joe, I have some reservations over processing however. I see some ghosting around the heads and I am not sure if you have lifted the blacks a little too much, they look a little hazy, I also get the impression they are oversharpened. if you used the sharpening in Topaz I would suggest backing it off and did you turn off sharpening before Topaz?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Jonathan Ashton

Great timing Joe, I have some reservations over processing however. I see some ghosting around the heads and I am not sure if you have lifted the blacks a little too much, they look a little hazy, I also get the impression they are oversharpened. if you used the sharpening in Topaz I would suggest backing it off and did you turn off sharpening before Topaz?

---

Hi Jon, thank you for viewing and commenting. There is an expression that too many cooks spoil the soup, well too much post processing spoils an image. I looked at what I had done in Lightroom's history for the image, tweak this, tweak that, one tweak cancels another. So I went back to the beginning. This time I used Neat Image for noise reduction and sharpened the image in Lightroom. WDYT?

Really nice mating image Joe! I looked at the repost and I think you need something in-between them (especially on the blacks). The repost is too dark and I can hardly see the eye. The top is overworked. I think in-between would be perfect. Just my two cents.

Hi Joe ... nice shot in terms of content and behavior captured .

Overall I think both images could go warmer in the WB , IMHO .
The RP is slightly better in terms of processing .
Keep it simple ...

TFS Andreas

Joe MUCH better, clean a whistle - nice!!
(Hey we say too many cooks spoil the ......broth - but same thing!!!:bg3:) It's a curious thing the American and English language, you use some "old" words and we use some newer words and vice versa. (Got, gotten etc.)

Joe, what a fantastic frame. One of the better compositions from you in a while IMO.

I love the touch of beach at bottom and the slightly diagonal effect from it. The water and smooth blue feel are excellent and the poses.... wow!

You definitely corrected what was going to be my initial comments RE the depth in the blacks. I might suggest just a slight in between with the eyes, not as much as the op, but make them stand out just a touch. A personal pref.

Otherwise, I'm curious if just a touch of warmth on the subjects could really make it pop. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to have this one.

TFS sir!

Sweet shot. Crop works. Wish he had a touch more light in his eye, but then again maybe this wasn't his favorite girl. :)

Thanks everyone for viewing and commenting, much appreciated. As suggested I will revisit the image to lighten the eye.

Nicely done, and the repost is a big improvement.

with love, artie

Classic desoto image here. Nice pose on both birds.