It made for a bit of a different setting when this Lesser wandered out of shore and into the grasses (the was still about an inch or two of water on the ground there). Most of the images did not turn out, but a couple did. Even with the tall grasses I stayed low to the ground in the hopes of getting this result...most of them had way too many items obstructing the subject but this one worked well. I rethinking about removing the OOF blade in front of the YL, but I can live with it there too.
Canon 7D + 500mm f/4 II + 1.4TC, manual exposure, evaluative metering, 1/400s., f/7.1, ISO 800, natural light, handheld, the white oof flowers toned down via low opacity soft clone brush, 75% FF, cyans added to the yellows to make the grass as green as I remembered.
I love the way the grasses surround the bird, and the detail in them on the right balances the bird nicely.
Excellent job of toning down the flowers -- that's a good technique and they look very natural. Some people here may not know that when you do that, you can set the Mode of the clone brush to Darken and if you choose a sample point that is darker than the flower but lighter than the surrounding area, it will be selective about the area it burns down. You don't want to clone more area than necessary at partial opacity because it will smooth out noise / grain / detail.
Hi Dan, great 3D feel to this, the head and bill seem to pop out my screen. Your usual low shooting angle has worked out even better, as he seems to blend in to the surrounding grasses nicely. I do like how some of the grass blades are still prominent.
I like the low angle, walking pose, setting, colours and composition. I would like to see the OOF grass in front of the body removed but still a beauty as presented. Excellent image Daniel!
Thanks for the comments guys! Diane, awesome tip, count me in as one of those who did not know that (always kept it on "normal"). I'll be exploring that on some images...
Those shots are definitely tricky, but you nailed this one. If you can get rid of the oof blade of grass on the body, I'd be all for it! I'm ok with the in focus one.
Great tip from Diane. Never thought of doing that with the clone brush tool, going to try it out!
Lesser Yellowlegs in Grassy Marsh Habitat.
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