1st post on BPN - Marbled Godwit

[Dorian Anderson]

Hi Everyone

Some of my other posting forums are getting a bit stale, so I'm migrating over here for some critique and inspiration.
Briefly, I'm 39 years old and live in San Mateo, California (though I've lived in NYC, Boston, and LA in the last 8 years).
I am a lifelong and diehard birdwatcher and have been getting deeper into the bird photography mix in the last 6-7 years.
Professionally, I am a molecular geneticist recently turned writer/blogger/birding guide/photographer/adventurer. My last
adventure, for example, was a 365-day, 18,000-mile cycling trip around the lower 48 states. The purpose of that trip was
to see how many species of birds I could observe in one year in the US without the aid of any petroleum (a bicycle 'Big
Year' for those familiar with the birding lexicon). I found 618 species along my 28-state route, and in the process broke the
national and world record for bird species seen a single year using only self-powered modes of transportation. I am a total
bird fanatic, and I am constantly trying to capture and display the entire avian spectrum, not just those most-photographed
or well-recognized species. Shorebirds are a personal favorite, so I guess it's appropriate that I'll kick things off with this
shot from out back of my apartment yesterday afternoon.

I do all my processing in Lightroom as it is criminally easy. I do not consider myself at all adept at PP, so any suggestions
people have will be greatly appreciated.

Marbled Godwit (Limosa fedoa) in winter plumage
San Mateo, CA, 2/17/18
Canon 500mm f/4 IS v1 + 1.4x III on EOS 5D Mark IV
1/3200 at f/5.6, ISO 640

[John Whaley]

Welcome Dorian. It is a wonderful 1st post. Great light and wings up pose. Looks like sharp focus with good feather detail. On my monitor it looks like some of the blacks are chocked on the top of the far wing. Also I would like to see a bit more space for the Godwit to fly into but not a big deal. tfs

[annmpacheco]

Welcome aboard Dorian, I like this marbled godwit for your first post. My only suggestion is to have a looser crop so we can see the bird flying into the space... I like the mud on the tip of the beak and the feet. Looking forward to more of your posts. TFS

[Dorian Anderson]

Thanks John and Ann. I struggled with the crop a bit as there are a number of
photobombing, bright white, and very distracting in-flight Western Sandpipers
just beyond the current right hand crop edge. As cloning those out would be difficult
and heavy-handed, I decided to set the crop to avoid them. Since I have no room
to work with on that right hand edge, expanding the frame left as logically suggested
leaves the bird crowded into the right hand edge of the frame. I was also hoping the crop
as it is might elicit the feeling that the bird is floating up or down versus flying R > L.
Guess that idea missed the mark......

[Isaac Grant]

Welcome. I don't think you will find a more helpful bunch than we have here. I have read about your big bike year. Very impressive. Just so you know I am also a life long birder who was raised by my dad who was a birder. Also did 2 intensive big years, but only for New York City where I live. My favorites are also shorebirds and I used to do the shorebird counts at Jamaica Bay.The site allows posts up to 1920 square but not more than 600KB so please post larger

I really like the blue water and the raised wings. Perfect head angle. I did the following to your image. Let me know if you have questions. And I would highly recommend learning photoshop. It makes a huge difference in final output. As presented I find the image a bit dull and the bird is not tack sharp, plus the background would benefit from some noise reduction

I added canvas to the left to give some room for the bird to fly into. In Photoshop you go to IMAGE > CANVAS SIZE and I made the width 4.25 inches. Then I anchored the right side so it knows to add the canvas to the left
Then I used the RECTANGULAR MARQUEE TOOL (use M as a shortcut in PS) and outlined the full area of canvas that I added and a bit of the blue water that was there already. Then hit SHIFT and F5 and it will fill in the area. The fill was pretty good but not great so I then
Used the CLONE TOOL and used the areas on the right to clone the left side. On a Mac you hold down Option and then left click the mouse to choose the source of the cloning. Then left click again and drag the mouse over the area you want to clone
Then I selected the bird using the MAGIC WAND TOOL (shortcut W) and held down SHIFT. Used that multiple times to get the water around the bird. Then I went to SELECT > INVERSE SELECTION which now selects the bird. Then you need to save your selection by going to SELECT > SAVE SELECTION
I used VIVEZA and added some warmth and brightened the image. That is a NIK plugin that I am not sure you have.
Added a touch of contrast by going to IMAGE > ADJUSTMENTS > BRIGHTNESS/CONTRAST and added +5 contrast
Then I used another NIK filter and added a 25% opacity Detail Extractor/Tonal Contrast layer (harder to explain)
I then used Neat Image to run noise reduction on your water (much harder to explain)
Then SMART SHARPENED you bird at .4 and 75 by going to FILTER > SHARPEN > SMART SHARPEN. Make sure the reduce noise slider is at 0
Then I saved your file by going to FILE > EXPORT > SAVE FOR WEB (LEGACY).

Of course this is all much better done on the full res file and I did not take the time to make a perfect selection or make sure sharpness was perfect. Just trying to give an idea of what could be done to sharpen bird a bit more, apply noise reduction to background and add canvas. It took me all of 2 minutes to do the edits and about 10 minutes to write how I did it Please let me know if you have questions.

[Dorian Anderson]

Thanks you so much for the workflow, Isaac. I have been struggling for years to understand why my results are
95% of the way there, and now I have the answer, particularly with respect to sharpness and noise. I like LR since
it is so easy to use but I know that it really holds me back. I suck at computers/software so anything beyond LR is
just really intimidating. I can engineer any genome on planet Earth but I have no idea what a plug-in is or how to
use it. I actually have Photoshop but never use it since it is so much more complicated than LR. I can follow
the rationale for every step you present, but I have no idea about how to properly execute it in the program, particularly
with respect to the steps you label as 'hard to explain' above. Can you recommend somewhere I could go to learn all this
stuff - preferrably without paying $5000 for workshop!

[Isaac Grant]

The site owner Artie Morris has some great eguides on his website. Read the descriptions but I think his "digital basics" are a great place to start. Great place to start. It's honestly not that hard once you get used to it. Just have to get in and try it. For the things I wasn't clear on there are many steps in them and each image has to be fine tuned for noise and things like that. Your image is beautiful. You just have to learn to get that last little bit out of it. I'm always surprised when people spend thousands or tens of thousands on gear yet fail to recognize the importance of their workflow and their monitor on the end product. Both make a huge difference.

[Tim Foltz]

Hey Dorian,
Glad to see you on here my friend I hope all is well, you can post here or on the ETL forum where I'll do my best to help.
Glad you arrived safe and sound up north and I hope you're working on that book.

Take Care -Tim

[gail bisson]

Welcome to BPN Dorian.
You have received some great advice and help from isaac and I do not think I can add much to his critique.
You must have so many great stories to tell from your bird biking year!!
Gail

[Noel Heustis]

Hello Dorian - I love the image (Marbled Godwits are one of my favorites) and welcome to BPN. I'm a relatively new participant on the site and I can vouch for the amazing, helpful people here. Isaac has been a huge help and is really detailed in the advice he gives. I can vouch a million times over for Artie's Digital Basics file. I was completely intimidated by the use of Photoshop (but knew that I needed to learn it). I have been learning now for about three months and I'm blown away by the software and the difference in my images. Isaac makes it sound really simple and I can tell you as a beginner that it certainly takes me longer than a few minutes to get through a lot of the steps, but I think it is completely worth the time and effort to learn.

My advice to you would be to just learn one technique at a time in Photoshop or one "problem" to fix like how to handle out of focus photobomber birds (i have to admit cropping out is pretty quick and simple, but not the only way to do it). Anyway, I love the story and your enthusiasm. Thanks for sharing.

[Randy Stout]

Dorian:

Welcome to BPN, great story about your trip, look forward to more birds and more stories.

Lots of great help available here. By reading and critiquing the images, your own skills will improve, and yes, you need photoshop skills to optimize the images. LR has come a very long way, but it is just the starting point for most bird images

Cheers

Randy

[arash_hazeghi]

Doria, welcome to BPN and a nice post. Did you take this image near Radio road?

I like the pose, just wish the far wing was a bit higher but the dangling feet or nice. Issac's repost really brought this image to life with the colors that closely resemble the blue of the bay and evening light in San Mateo Area

You can play with LR all day and all year and still not get these colors, I recommend using Canon DPP. I have taken thousands of shot like this and at this location, I never had to adjust anything. Do you have the DPP4 guide?

TFS and looking for more

[David Salem]

Hey Dorian!! Glad to see you over here buddy. Lots of good critiques and info on this site. The shot looks great with lots of nice warm colors and clean details. The repost adds to the nice image. Well done and looking forward to more.