Black-Necked Stilt

[Melissa Groo]

Canon 1D4
500mm +1.4
Gitzo 3530LS/Wimberley

ISO 500
f/5.6
1/6400

Going over some photos from Florida earlier in the year that I never processed. Came upon this one and liked it. I think I was with Bob Blanchard, and Cheryl Molennor when I took it. We were lying in the mud in some marshy area that I don't even think exists anymore, in Fort Myers. I fell in love with these birds and had a really wonderful time photographing them.
This was shot as a vertical so I added canvas to give him room to walk into. Removed a green cast from the belly and tried to eke out some detail in the whites.
Thank you very much in advance for any comments and critiques.

[Jeff Sorbie]

Great low angle shot Melissa. Nice BG and detail.

[Bill Dix]

Sweet shot, Melissa. Great low POV (muddy marsh notwithstanding), good pose and exposure, nice work on the canvas extension. The bright spot behind the bird's tail-end draws my eye, but doesn't keep this from being a beauty of a shot. I wish I knew where you took this. I was just in the Ft. Myers area over Thanksgiving, and would have gone out of my way to get a chance like this. I've never seen Stilts on my several visits to the area.

[Daniel Cadieux]

I like the low angle, walking, pose with water drops trailing off the foot. I'm finding the image a bit dark, and I'm not sure what the light condition was but I'd love to see this a little cooler (less yellow)...at least for the water.

[Melissa Groo]

Thanks for the comments. I brightened it a bit, cooled down everything but the stilt, and darkened the bright area behind him. Look better, I hope?
Daniel, this was taken near sunset, so it was getting a bit dark.

[Arthur Morris]

Sharp with a loverly raised foot and a sweet background. I wish that the head was turned a bit more towards us as the eye is a bit strange with the pupil up towards the front of the head. My biggest problem is that the colors still seem off: I think of this species as having pink legs; they look orangish here....

[Melissa Groo]

Artie, did you see my repost or were we writing at the same time? I was wondering if my rework had addressed the color issue, as I cooled everything in the picture except the body (meaning I included the legs in my cooling selection and they do look pinker now).

[Ignacio Yufera]

Beautiful, simple, and elegant. Really sweet image.

[arash_hazeghi]

Hi Melissa,
I love the pose, low angle and details, it shows the delicate beak and legs! I agree with Artie re HA.

It does have a strong color cast, even the repost. I think you need to recalibrate your monitor for correct color display

[Melissa Groo]

Thanks Arash. To be honest, I think it's my eyes that need recalibrating....
I'm become a nut about head angles but in my opinion it's ok here as the stilt is walking forward and so that makes sense to me that its head is perfectly forward. And I'm ok with the eye too as it's looking forward, it doesn't look strange to me as Artie thought. To each his own.

[gail bisson]

Third one's a charm!!
Colors are spot on.
Lovely low POV, great BG and light.
Love this one,
Gail

[Miguel Palaviccini]

Melissa, I love the repost. Can't comment on the color cast as I'm not viewing from a calibrated monitor at the moment.

[Simon Wantling]

Wonderful photo. Love the low angle.

[arash_hazeghi]

I'm sure your eyes are good. The stilt whites should be very close to a pure white color, so you can use the eye dropper tool in PS to check the RGB values. the last repost is almost there, just needs to get brighter

[John Cooper]

They all look pretty good to me Melissa..!! As I mentioned before this is one of my favourite waders. I like the raised leg and that killer red eye. You did a good job adding canvas to the vertical original. Well done.

[Melissa Groo]

Thanks for that Arash. I see what you mean now. I don't know why stilts are such a sticking point for me, I consistently get the tone wrong. Thank goodness for this forum and folks like you who take the time to educate me....it's why I keep coming back.

[John Cooper]

They all look pretty good to me Melissa..!! As I mentioned before this is one of my favourite waders. I like the raised leg shown here and that killer red eye. You did a good job adding canvas to the vertical original. Well done.

[Grace Scalzo]

Since you have already put a lot of work into this fine image, I went over it carefully. Arash's color correction looks good on my calibrated monitor. There are quite a few dust spots, upper right corner, under the bird's tail toward the edge in the tan part. Faint remnants of clone marks uner the tail. Upper left corner needs color. Looks like some posturizing happening in the bg, upper left. I think that the eye is ok, two reflections, one from the water, one from the sun. I would burn the black in it, slightly, just to get rid of the milkiness. Really, it's such a nice image and that is why I am being so picky!

[Arthur Morris]

Artie, did you see my repost or were we writing at the same time? I was wondering if my rework had addressed the color issue, as I cooled everything in the picture except the body (meaning I included the legs in my cooling selection and they do look pinker now).

Must have been writing at the same time. Arash got the pink legs right in his repost. Way to go Hawkman.

As for the head angle, it is almost OK, about 1/2 of one degree turned away. One or two degrees turned towards you with the subject square to the imaging sensor is generally ideal and would have been so here. A small difference? Yes. But a large difference too :).

[Melissa Groo]

Grace, it is your exacting eye that has made you one of my idols. Thank you for your detailed look. I put a bunch more work into it, incorporating your excellent suggestions.
Thank you for your comments Artie and everyone else. I got me some more learnin today.

[Arthur Morris]

YAW. We all enjoy serious students who want only to improve :).

[Grace Scalzo]

Thank you for your most kind words. (Not sure that they are deserved!) I love your final product. Looks really sweet.

[Cheryl Arena Molennor]

I think you nailed it by the last post. I really like this image. The low angle creates such a great softness to the environment and I really like the birds pose. My only suggestion left would be some NR on the bg since you had to brighten up a bit. Great image. Actually I take that back ... last image looks good with noise I was looking at the one before it as far as the noise.

[dankearl]

Nice work Melissa, the last repost looks very nice.
Color castes are tricky, you did a nice job responding to the critiques.

[Satish Ranadive]

Melissa:
The last repost is great.Perfect in all aspects.
Learned a lot about color casts.

Regards,
Satish.

[Raymond Lee]

The last repost is excellent! Wish that photo is mine! Great work!

[Doug Schurman]

Great capture. The water drops coming off the toes really add a lot for me.

[Shawn Zierman]

Composition is solid. Very nice leg lift and sense of motion. Your logic regarding the head angle
and gaze of the subject, makes perfect sense to me. Cool to watch the progression of the image
through the reposts. You definitely ended up with a very nice final image.

[David Salem]

Great job Melissa. One of my favorite shore birds. Pretty cool to look at the OP and then the final. Very well done.

[christopher galeski]

the last post is the one Melissa,nice light,sharp as a box of knives,beautiful BG,nice low angle,like the raised foot.well done.

[Juan Carlos Vindas]

Very educative for me also! :)

Arash repost is the best for my eyes. Love the clean BG and and raised foot.