Kildeer comin' in hot

[Brian Sump]

Same pond as where I shoot the Avocets, 830am in partly cloudy skies. These little guys make quite the raucous but I love their red eye ring.

I minimized post sharpening because the neck area began to look a little crunchy. And yeah, those stupid little spots on the water..... one day when I'm not raising littles I stamp every one of them out.

D850
Sigma 500mm
HH

ISO 500
1/4000
f4

C1P and PS. Crop for appearance

[Randy Stout]

Brian:

Very nice exposure, whites are excellent. Like the wing spread, dropped landing gear, eye ring.

Soft background.

Cheers

Randy

[Jonathan Ashton]

Very nice indeed, I get the impression this isn't quite so saturated or contrasted as some of your previous shots consequently plenty of plumage detail and the bill looks well defined.

[Brian Sump]

Very nice indeed, I get the impression this isn't quite so saturated or contrasted as some of your previous shots consequently plenty of plumage detail and the bill looks well defined.

Jonathan, thank you. Were you implying that my previous images came wonky out of the camera or that something I did in post creating too much saturation or contrast?

In the most recent avocet, that came out very unsaturated with the flat light so I did add some saturation and vibrance, however most of the time I am lowering contrast to bring out white details.

[Aditya Sridhar]

I love this shot Brian. Great pose with the outstretched legs and good wing position. Colors look good to me, although I'd like to see a hint of additional saturation, but it's certainly personal preference. I don't mind the specks on the water at all - in fact, I quite like them. The only thing I'd change about the image is remove some room off the top and add some to the bottom of the frame to balance the composition. Other than that, really well done!

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Brian, I quite like the comp, but again wonder if it was slightly under exposed? I don't mind the water, it's natural and reflects the environment. Just a thought, but going slightly darker, adding some Midtone Curves, remove the slight pink/magenta tint and you start to get a bit more tonal range and the whites under the wing have a tad more definition/clarity. Hard to work from the OP, but this may give an idea you may wish to explore at a later date perhaps. Note it's not done on a calibrated monitor so it's all guess work.

[Brian Sump]

Steve, really appreciate the thoughts.

On this one I actually deployed a TK mid-tone mask in PS and played with it. I had two variations, one slightly darker than the OP that I also really liked. I chose this one ultimately but totally know what you mean.

[Brian Sump]

I love this shot Brian. Great pose with the outstretched legs and good wing position. Colors look good to me, although I'd like to see a hint of additional saturation, but it's certainly personal preference. I don't mind the specks on the water at all - in fact, I quite like them. The only thing I'd change about the image is remove some room off the top and add some to the bottom of the frame to balance the composition. Other than that, really well done!

Aditya, thank you. Appreciate the comments

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Brian ... well done in getting the shot !!!
Love the pose and the dangling feet ... comp works well .
Overall good to see you are making progress in terms of editing ...
Steve has shown a way how to get the image a bit more appealing .... IMHO !!!

TFS Andreas

[Daniel Cadieux]

Good job panning with this bird as they are swift. Beautiful BG. The spots in the water look better than on your egret image, so they they do not bother me here. I like what Steve has done.

[John Mack]

Pretty sweet. Nice how the bird is right above the water. Good pose and solid framing.

[gail bisson]

Very well done.
I like what Steve has done. That little boost in curves really helps the image.
Good BIF image- this bird is hard to get in flight.
Water looks fine.
Would be very happy to have this in my files!
Gail

[Andreas Liedmann]

On this one I actually deployed a TK mid-tone mask in PS and played with it. .

Brian good that you gave the info about the use of the mask , but also important is what kind of edit you made through the mask .... i.e. levels , curves or exposure or something else to get more tonal depth into the mid tones .

[Brian Sump]

Very well done.
I like what Steve has done. That little boost in curves really helps the image.
Good BIF image- this bird is hard to get in flight.
Water looks fine.
Would be very happy to have this in my files!
Gail

Great encouragement, thanks Gail!

[Brian Sump]

Brian good that you gave the info about the use of the mask , but also important is what kind of edit you made through the mask .... i.e. levels , curves or exposure or something else to get more tonal depth into the mid tones .

1. Curves - Lifted darks on bird (levels 3-6 in TK) just a little
2. Curves - Lifted mids on bird
3. Selected RGB channel and ctrl J to paste on a new layer. This created a new mask that brought out details in the whites
4. Curves to reduce brightness (meant to apply to the above layer but accidentally went global)

Here is one where I only left #3, bring out details in lights

[Arthur Morris]

I too like Steve's re-post. How do you raise a little???

[Jonathan Ashton]

Jonathan, thank you. Were you implying that my previous images came wonky out of the camera or that something I did in post creating too much saturation or contrast?

In the most recent avocet, that came out very unsaturated with the flat light so I did add some saturation and vibrance, however most of the time I am lowering contrast to bring out white details.

WTG!!

[Brian Sump]

I too like Steve's re-post. How do you raise a little???

Artie, sorry didn't understand your question?