Black and White and White and Black

[Paul Gobert]

Birdscape at Hastie Swamp this morning. What a bird photographer does when he can't get close enough.
Part of a large flock of Magpie Geese in foreground with a pair of Black-Winged Stilts in background.
Duck in front of Geese.
Water level is going down rapidly. We haven't had our seasonal heavy rains.
Taken near midday, not ideal as a lot of the geese were sleeping and lighting angle n ot the best..
Quite a spectacle when the geese fly in from the neighboring fields early in the morning.
Even more spectacular was the day the resident White Breasted Sea Eagle did a slow, low pass along the bank in front of me.
The flock of geese exploded into the air in fright.
Have photographed the Eagle with a duck it caught but it was too far away for my equipment. Shame as it was striking some great poses as a pair of Spur Wing Plovers harassed it.
Going back early tomorrow morning.

Pentax K30, spot metering Av.
Beroflex 500mm f8 with Sigma 1.4x
ISO 1600, 1/1000, tripod, Aperture probably around f16 to f22 trying to get both groups of birds in focus.
No cropping.
Adjustments to: Color Temp, Tint, Whites, Blacks, Clarity Vibrance and Saturation in Lightroom
The editing has removed the redness of the Stilts legs and the bills of the Magpie Geese.
Further adjustments to Tint or Vibrance unfortunately give a very green cast to the water.
Should I play with the red channel in Photoshop?

Comments and suggestions welcome

Paul

[Glennie Passier]

Hi Paul, This is certainly an interesting image! You are indeed fortunate to have these birds on your doorstep.

Some suggestions that I might try;- maybe crop the top just above the stilts (or even below the stilts, if you didn't mind losing them. I would also crop just below the duck (which in my opinion, doesn't really say much..is his head underwater?) and then I would clone him out. You would have left a sort of black and white abstract happening. The whites on the geese looks hot and I think there could be a magenta halo. You also have a persistent dust bunny between the stilts and the geese. Should you play in PS? Yes! As Diane would say, this is how we learn. Have fun!

Hope you had some luck finding birds in the morning

[Diane Miller]

Paul, good observations and advice from Glennie. And a difficult subject here. The stilts might make an interesting backdrop, but the pole reflection running through one is a major distraction. I would have gone horizontal here and excluded the stilts, as the geese are basically a horizontal subject grouping and they feel very crowded with this composition.

You could work on the reds in LR, also. HSL panel. (First optimize in Temp and Tint.) And maybe try the Profiles in the Camera Calibration tab, although I'm not sure what it has for your camera. But I don't see a color issue here. What makes you ask that? Whites are blown, which you might be able to recover with the Highlights slider. If not, it's just an overexposure -- always difficult with a black and white subject in any light.

[Arthur Morris]

Hi Paul, Stay home at noon when it is sunny :) Or pray for clouds. Or get up early. Welcome, artie

[Paul Gobert]

Thanks for the welcome Artie.
I make a point of visiting the swamp whenever I drive across to Atherton.
Sometimes the conditions and time of day aren't optimum for photography but always a great place to visit and often interesting people there.
Last visit was early morning and cloudy. This time there was a male Jabiru there.
Its commonly called the Black-necked Stork and is Australia's only Stork.
Unfortunately the flat lighting didn't highlight his iridescent neck feathers.
The female is more spectacular as they have a bright yellow eye. Apparently both a male and female were there the day before.
Tried out my recently serviced Sun 600mm with the Sigma 1.4. Not impressed with the results. The Beroflex 500mm and 1.4 make a good combination though.
Have recently started trying infrared photography. Best results for IR are reportedly when the sun is high and strong. So early morning and later afternoon birds and nature, midday IR.
Paul