Black-naped Terns

[Colin Driscoll]

A pair of Black-naped Terns in a territorial display. A small tern.
1DXII 70-200 2.8 II & 2xIII 400mm 1/2500 f14 iso800 -.70 Pattern metering. Lying flat on the sand.
DPP4 & PS slight crop and sharpening.

[Bill Nuttall]

attractive shot Colin, works at all level - you have brought out the subtle tones in the birds feathers and really controlled the whites ....... and "silvers"

my only comment would be "the blues" not 100% on the shade - but that's just a matter of taste and you know what you saw

stunning birds

[Satish Ranadive]

Excellent image. Wonderful exposures in whites. Superb cross formation of beaks. Love the low shooting angle and composition.

Regards,
Satish.

Sent from my LG-D802 using Tapatalk

[Isaac Grant]

These are beautiful birds Colin and I like the way you captured the intimate moment between them. I've only seen these birds once while on a boat going out to Michaelmas Cay off of Cairns. I very much like the color of the sand and the water. Ideally the light would have been at your back and not to your right. Created some harsh shadows. Also would have been better with the birds facing us and not away. If mine I would clone out the one large rock touching the left birds primaries. Would also try a version with the horizon line leveled or more level than it is now to see how that works. Also not sure what is between the 2 birds if that is another large rock or what. I would be tempted to clone that out to have some of that beautiful water between the birds.

[Colin Driscoll]

Thanks for the comments. Isaac, what do you see as the horizon? The true horizon is level and the birds are at the edge of sand/coral sloping down to the water. Agree with cloning out that stone against the left bird.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Very good behaviour, caught at just the right moment. Neat floor, and I like the BG too. The main issue here is the light - both the angle and the intensity (harsh). This gave you a lot of contrast, especially on the blacks which are blocked.

[William Dickson]

Great looking frame Colin. Lovely control of the whites. Never seen this bird before. would it be possible to get some detail on the blacks, or is this how they are? I love the interaction between the two and all blends in nicely with the lovely coloured BG. Well done.

Will

[Isaac Grant]

I meant the line of the sand. Agree your water is level but the sand is not. Maybe somewhere a little closer to level with the sand. But I guess that may make unnatural looking water? Tough one to get right I think.

[arash_hazeghi]

excellent interaction Collin, I see some sharpening halos around the birds and wish for catchlights

TFS

[Colin Driscoll]

Thanks Arash, those halos are in the RAW image and I find they occur when using Normal mode, not sure what to do about them. I barely needed to sharpen this image.

[arash_hazeghi]

the halos are a result of sharpening (RAW file does not have halo), can you post the RAW file somewhere and I can show you how it should look like

do you have the DPP4 guide?