Showering Streaked Spider hunter

[Jay Shah]

Please to share an image of this spider hunter. It appeared from nowhere with a clear objective -- to take a nice shower under water drip. And of course, action was over in a blink.. luckily my settings were right to make some frames with proper exposure.

C&C welcome and appreciated.

Nikon D500, 600 mm F4,
f8, 1/125, ISO1600

[Alex Becker]

Nice one Jay. I like the water streaks and the sense of motion on the bird. Amazed at how sharp the head is under these circumstances. To me, the feet and perch look a bit odd -- somewhat plasticy. Maybe from too much noise reduction? I think worth another look though. TFS

[Jay Shah]

Thank you Alex for reviewing the image and C&C. I felt exactly as you about the perch and the legs. And I did check with the original raw image before posting. No difference. It looks the way it is because both are wet and the light. Having said that if I were to reprocess today, I would reduce saturation on the legs a bit. Cheers.

[Arthur Morris]

The leg color was an easy fix. First I selected the legs with the Quick Selection Tool (while working large). Next I added 75 points of CYAN to the RED channel in Selective Color. Then I reduced the SAT 10 points.

Separate question: did you do anything funky with the distal 1/3 of the bird's bill?

Love the image but for the two giant silver white things? Do you know what caused those?

with love, artie

[Jay Shah]

Hi Artie,

Thanks for your comments. Yes your trick for dealing with oversaturated works well. Poor bird is either hurt or getting old. I did not do anything with it. The two "diamonds" are water drops -- and I love them -;). Again no tempering from my side.

[Mike Hitchen]

I think you've done excellently to get the eyes so sharp at such a slow shutter speed.
Regards the silver that Art refers to at the end of the bill, my only gripe there is that they drip touches the end of the bill and I would have preferred even a sliver of separation. But that is my only gripe.

[Jay Shah]

Thanks Mike for C&C.

Based on comments received from Mike, Artie and Alex, I did some processing. Got rid of water droplets, reduced brightness on perch to make it less plasticky and reduced saturation on legs (added Cyan as Artie's, but took out 50 points black from red). Also changed crop to make this landscape orientation. I like this better. Let me know what you think. Thanks again for comments.

[Mike Hitchen]

I think that works very well and you have deleted the drops very effectively. I can just about see a border from the drop below the beak but only because I know you have removed it. I think you have done well.

[Arthur Morris]

Checking back, the leg colors in the repost in Pane #7 are still way over the top. Do go back and read what I wrote in Pane #4.

with love, artie

ps: excellent work with the two huge water spots!

[Jay Shah]

Hi Arrtie,

• Thanks for your continued guidance. I have been using the method you described. In the revised image I did not go all the way as you had described. Not sure why. But did so now and think it improves the image. What do you think?

[Arthur Morris]

YAW Jay. Good job on eliminating those electric feet! I still love the image.

with love, artie