Canon 1DX
f/4 500mm with 1.4
f/6.3
1/2500
ISO 1600
This is one from Sunday, late afternoon winter sun, when I went to photograph the seals on the shore, in my hometown. I was set up, with my new tripod and gimbal head, watching the seals, when this guy, flew in real close, and perched nearby. The BG, apart from the sea, is another set of rocks, some distance away, which I thought gave this one, some depth. No feet shown, but I do like the seaweed blending into the FG. Must say, the tripod sure makes a difference from HH.
I really like the habitat of this portrait Will, the seaweed is a cool element and I don't mind not being able to see the feet. Wonderful detail and color, and the head is turned just enough to catch the sunlight nicely. Well done. :-)
Only nits are that the whites might be a tad hot in a couple of spots, and the BG looks a bit odd/pixelated for some reason.
Sharp with a nice image design. The reason some of the WHITEs are on the bright side is the off-angled light that has left the most of the bird in shade.
Is the white neck band normal? I have seen Eurasian Oystercatcher and do not remember that feature ...
with love, artie
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Hi Will, I might be tempted to revisit the RAW and pull the Highlights & Contrast back to zero. Being side on has helped and I don't mind the missing feet. Good detail, but if this is cropped then I might be tempted to zoom out a fraction so it's a tad less in the frame (smaller). You were lucky not to intersect the head/beak with the horizon, well done on that. With regard to the whites, yes they are a tad bright, again did you tweak the white point in Levels, if so again I would peg it back, in doing so you may get some more tone back? Personally I'm not a lover of the saturated blue coming through in the seaweed, I would mask it and reduce.
Thank you, Bob and Artie. Hi Artie, I never even thought about the white band, but yes, I think your right. What type is this then?
Will
YAW Will. There is only one type in the UK. It does not look like a juvie; perhaps it is an aberrant bird. Stuff like that can sometimes be related to diet ...
with love, artie
BIRDS AS ART Blog: great info and lessons, lots of images with our legendary BAA educational Captions; we will not sell you junk. 30+ years of long lens experience/e-mail with gear questions.
BIRDS AS ART Online Store: we will not sell you junk. 35 years of long lens experience. Please e-mail with gear questions.
Check out the new SONY e-Guide and videos that I did with Patrick Sparkman here. Ten percent discount for BPN members,
YAW Will. There is only one type in the UK. It does not look like a juvie; perhaps it is an aberrant bird. Stuff like that can sometimes be related to diet ...
with love, artie
I've posted it to a friend of mine, I'll let you know what he comes up with
Pretty nice shot, Will. In my experience, these are hard birds to photograph in direct light due to the extremes of contrast. You've done a pretty good job on the tones I think with a few pointers offered to fix the minor issues here. Shame about the posterisation on the water but not a killer by any stretch. I like the composition and size of the bird in this image. Details is superb and I like the seaweed too. I can see the blue cast on the breast and seaweed. I think it's probably worth trying to remove some but not all of that as our vision automatically adjusts to some degree to remove that when we are looking at a live scene but a photograph will show reality as it does here. I'd be pretty happy if this was mine.
YAW Will. There is only one type in the UK. It does not look like a juvie; perhaps it is an aberrant bird. Stuff like that can sometimes be related to diet ...
with love, artie
Apparently it will be a juve, and this occurs sometimes.!!!
Theme - Oystercatcher
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Originally Posted by William Dickson
