Juvenile Black Skimmer dive bombing a friend

[Melissa Usrey]

f/8
ISO 800
1/2000 sec.
560mm

Feedback appreciated!

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Melissa, very well timed to have captured this action, and love the concerned look back pose from the lower Skimmer. Overall, the image seems a bit dark - not sure what time of day you were out shooting these guys. Comp wise, Im not too keen on the square crop, but thats more a personal thing. I would take at least half off the bottom and add quite a bit to the LHS, to have space outside the wingtip of the incoming Skimmer.

[Melissa Usrey]

Thanks Stu! I normally never do square crops, but there were ducks to the left of the Skimmer and it was hard to isolate this action. I can certainly crop more off the bottom - I just liked the reflection. The photo was taken right before sunset.

[Alex Becker]

Agree with Stu regarding the crop. I also feel the image is a bit contrasty and saturated re: the blues. Might be possible to clone out the ducks in Photoshop in order to give this a loser crop. Nice action captured -- I love watching these birds. TFS

[Melissa Usrey]

Thanks Alex! I'll tone down the saturation and contrast. Yes, these birds are fascinating!

[Jonathan Ashton]

Wow that looks excellent, getting both bird sharp is really something. I agree the colours are a little dark andor saturated. Having read you reason for the square crop I understand, but if there was any way to make a 3:4 ratio I would.

[Melissa Usrey]

I don't think I'm allowed to post more than one photo per day, so if I've overstepped, please forgive me! I went back to the RAW photo and tried to correct it. You can probably see that I cloned out what I initially thought was a duck on the LHS - it was actually another Skimmer but not in great focus. I also lightened it up some. Originally, I never saturated it nor did I up the Vibrance or Contrast in LR.

[Daniel Cadieux]

You are allowed to repost versions of the same image within the same thread, this helps in an educational manner. I love the interaction! I much prefer the repost's comp, but I would add back a bit at bottom (if you look at the OP, I'd crop away about half the thickness below the legs). I also think you went too bright. Lastly, since you worked at bottom left already, I would experiment with a version that has only water to the left of the "mainland" as we can see that you've flipped a part of that to cover the extra skimmer. I love the yellow flowers!

[Melissa Usrey]

Thank you Daniel. I will get it eventually! Okay, you will see that my cloning is less than desirable, but I tried to clone the water to the left and darkened it a bit. I do appreciate all of these comments. I need this - some many people are too intimidated to post here, but getting this serious feedback is important to me.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Now we're getting somewhere! Yes, the cloning does need work, but you'll get there eventually. The cloned water looks good in pane #7 so you are perhaps closer than you think! In time you'll also incorporate other tools such as content aware and patch tool. It would be interesting to see what the original frame looked like, just to see what source material you had to work with.

[Melissa Usrey]

Daniel, here is the original photo.

[arash_hazeghi]

Hi Melissa, where did you take this photo? want to see if I guessed right

I like the interaction, looking at the image in pane 9, I would choose a 3:2 aspect ratio crop with more space to the right. as for cloning try content aware fill tool in PS. the image also needs more sharpening

[Melissa Usrey]

I reworked the entire image and hope this is better!

[Melissa Usrey]

I haven't learned PS yet - still watching LR tutorials! I can sharpen it using the NIK filters in PS however. I think I'm sick of this photo now!!! This was taken on Radio Road in Redwood City. There were thousands of birds this particular day around sunset. Sadly, the last time I was there, the water was gone and so were the birds. Is this the place you're guessing? The location was great for getting eye level, but the background was challenging.

[arash_hazeghi]

I guessed right, yes the BG in that location is not ideal

if you have Canon DPP you won't need LR, convert the RAW files using DPP then use PS for further editing.

best

[Melissa Usrey]

I'll definitely look into that! I still need to learn PS! Thanks!

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Melissa, I took your original in pane 11 and showed what you can do once you feel confident with your skills. Remember, we all started off from the beginning. My repost is a bit small. I used the content aware tool to remove the skimmer on the left, and then cleaned up with the clone tool.

[Melissa Usrey]

Amazing Stu! Thank you! That convinced me to start my PS tutorials!