killdeer

[Steve Smith]

Canon EOS 70D, Tamron SP 150-600, 1/1600, F8.0, 600 mm, ISO 800

I live half a block from the Ocean. This shot was taken Xmas eve in late afternoon sun at the end of our street. On the bird I increased the micro, low and medium contrast and decreased the high contrast. I also boosted the medium and large details and increased the saturation a bit. I blurred and desaturated the background. The shot was hand held. The image is cropped.

[Diane Miller]

Very nice pose and lighting, and the sharpness is good. What did you use for all the contrast adjustments? Sound like some Topaz thing, but I haven't used much with their software so can't comment on it.

It looks like it might use just a little brightening.

[Steve Smith]

Thank you for the comment Diane. Yes I used the Topaz plugin "Clarity" using a preset called "Fur and Feathers" and then modifying that a bit. With birds I usually find that moderate sharpening of the RAW file and then using micro, low, medium and high contrast adjustments, for me at least, works better than traditional sharpening alone. I will try brightening it a bit and see what I think.

[Warren Spreng]

Looks really nice Steve, I love the background color. I have fond memories of these birds as when I was growing up they liked to lay their eggs on our gravel driveway where they blended in so well my dad would rope the area off when he found them so we wouldn't step on them accidentally. I remember how he would show me how they would play the broken wing bit by walking near the nest.