Here is another American Oystercatcher photographed at Breezy Point in Queens, New York. This photo was taken about 10 minutes earlier than the one I posted previously. There was a pair of them that were actively feeding. As the waves washed away they would run and quickly catch these little crabs and then run away from the incoming waves. Made for some nice photos and something other than them just standing there.
Canon 7d mark ii and Canon 500 f4 ii + 1.4x iii. ISO 400, SS 1/2500, F 7.1
Converted in DPP 4 where only adjustments made were highlights -2 and shadows +1
In PS I added canvas on the left cause I did not get the bird perfectly in the frame. Took advice from the other post and removed a few black marks using lasso and content aware fill. Also took a bit more off of the bottom as suggested prior. Changed a few levels, contrast, saturation. A bit of eye work (noise reduction and darkened pupil). Applied noise reduction to background with NIK Define2. Sharpened with NIK Output sharpener. In order to bring out more in the whites as I used NIK Color EFX PRO 4 and did a tonal contrast and white neutralizer adjustment. I think this worked better as there is not color cast and the whites look good to me.
Tried the detail extractor but have not found that I don't like the results. Seems over processed to me. Could someone help with what are the best settings to bring out details but not look over done? Even at 3% I did not like the look of it.