Forster's Tern with Fish

[Joerg Rockenberger]

Thanks for looking. JR

Canon 40D, 400F5.6, 1/1250s, F8, ISO-400, Manual Exposure

[Arthur Morris]

Well done. Love teh fish and the splash. Good joob with the EXP. The eye and the forehead look a bit strange, almost brownish...

[Joerg Rockenberger]

Thanks for taking the time to comment. Are you suggesting to adjust the blacks in levels? Zooming in one can actually see several small bright spots. Could be water drops... JR

[Arthur Morris]

Not really. Am not sure what is going on there. It is actually not the forehead but the lores and the lower part of the face. Best to check it out on the full sized TIFF and see what is going on.

[Joerg Rockenberger]

I'll try to post a closeup of that area this evening from home. JR

[Joerg Rockenberger]

This is an unsharpened 100% crop (from tif) of the area Arthur described. JR

[Arthur Morris]

Thanks John, Well one thing is for sure; it is sharp. Not sure if the browner feathers are due to light angle or possibly molt... IAC, you might try selecting the eye with a QM and hitting Contrl U (SAT on a layer) and then de-SAT-ING 90% and moving the lightness slider to the left about the same. This will make the eye blacker and possibly stand out a bit more...

[Dan Brown]

Hi John. Nice shot! You did a good job with the timing. I would like to see maybe a little less harshness in contrast. As for the brownish forhead, I looked up Forster's Tern in my Nat.Geo. field guide 5th edition. Part of the description for juvenile Forster's reads "juvenile has ginger brown cap and dark eye patch". So, maybe your bird is a first breeding plumage individual with a bit of brown left. At the very least, the mention of "ginger brown" tells me that the color brown is possible in Forster's Tern plumage.

Dan Brown, Sacramento

[Chris Reid]

Great shot! Do you have it where we can see the full extension of the wings?