Oyster Catcher Birdscape

[Tobie Schalkwyk]

I liked the oil tanker in the BG so I've gone for a wide shot here instead of a close-up. I've probably bent one or two composition rules too but this works for me.

Common lighting & sharpness adjustments in LR. Darkest parts of bird lightened up a tad using lumo masks in PS.

All C&C's welcome.

Nikon D600
Nikon 300mm f/4.0D IF-ED AF-S + TCE14 II
f/8 | 1/3200s | 500 ISO | handheld

[Richard Flack]

Hi Tobie, I really like the composition and there is good detail in the cool looking rocks. The bird however IMO seems a little soft and quite flat from a colour perspective. It may be my monitor but I usually find oystercatchers to have vibrant red bills and stark black bodies. It may be worth having a look at this and seeing if you can bring it out more. (I am sure others will be able to give better PS instructions, as this is still my area of improvement :)). All the best and thanks for sharing

[Tobie Schalkwyk]

Hi Tobie, I really like the composition and there is good detail in the cool looking rocks. The bird however IMO seems a little soft and quite flat from a colour perspective. It may be my monitor but I usually find oystercatchers to have vibrant red bills and stark black bodies. It may be worth having a look at this and seeing if you can bring it out more. (I am sure others will be able to give better PS instructions, as this is still my area of improvement :)). All the best and thanks for sharing

Thanks for looking and commenting Richard. I totally agree with you. I've had to recover quite a lot from the shadows due to our old friend the sun and I've sacrificed some vibrance and shadows in the process. I've done the necessary:

[Loi Nguyen]

Hi Tobie, nice experiment and I like the concept. Agreed with Richard that the bird needs more details especially the eye. Loi

[Tobie Schalkwyk]

Hi Tobie, nice experiment and I like the concept. Agreed with Richard that the bird needs more details especially the eye. Loi

Thanks for looking & commenting Loi! Are you referring to the RP?

[WillieHall]

Tobie, I have seen and photographed quite a few of these the last year on the California coast. I think your repost is more accurate as I see the bird. Composition is your call and I like the rocky habitat you show. these are such interesting birds and difficult to get all that black. I like the job you did and thanks for the image.

[Diane Miller]

A nice scene showing the bird in its environment. You'll have very limited success trying to lighten darks in PS. After raw processing they are cemented into the file and there isn't much overhead in the tonal range to work with. The darkest tones are limited anyway, compared to the lights, by the way different tonal ranges are recorded by a camera. The place to optimize darks is in the raw converter, where you'll have all the information the camera captured.

I don't know what converter you use, but by carefully balancing the sliders in the Basic tab in ACR/LR you should be able to spread out darks as much as possible and bring out detail that you may have overlooked. Not all monitors are created equal, either, and some are better than others at showing the spread in dark tones. There is a stepwedge at the bottom of this page (every page here) and the two darkest rectangles should be distinguishable. If not, calibrating the monitor should help.

[Marina Scarr]

This is a pretty special and pleasing image! Love the way you have placed the oystercatcher in its environment so well and given it such prominence. The splash really bring this image up a notch. I believe with some PS work you will be able to bring out more details in the blacks and really make this image shine.