Regal Reflection

[Brian Sump]

Continuing at the local preserve where the Avocets are arriving in strong numbers, I arrived before sunrise to capture a series, including this frame.

All colors present are organic to the capture. I cropped a bit but the indigo color continued all the way down the og frame - was caused by a sign above near the highway. Don't see that color too often in frames so I found it pretty. (note - I subjectively left the hit of purple on top of the beak accordingly)

R5
600mm
Handheld
ISO 3200
1/500
f4

LR and PS, DN. Cloned one small bubble, a spec highlight and added a sliver of canvas left after slight rotation

[Volkan Akgul]

Hi Brian,

bird breed and light are very good for me. I enjoyed it very much, congratulations Brian. Applause
Congratulations

[Arthur Morris]

What Volkan said. Yes to applause. The perfect framing includes the whole reflection plus jut the right amount below. The gradations in backgrounds color are enchanting. My fave is the slightly violet blue at the bottom. And that even has some gradations from side to side. Did I mention that the bird is super-sharp and beautiful? BTW, it's a she.

with love, artie

[Kurt Bowman]

This is sweet Brian! Love the reflection and the indigo color you mentioned is really nice! I will also give you an applause! Great work.

[annmpacheco]

I like your eye, terrific to utilize the colored reflection from a sign, what gorgeous dreamy colors that go hand in hand with a superb specimen! She's a beauty as well as the image.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Very nice indeed, composition, pose, colouration, wow lovely shot.

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Brian ... what's not to like here ??

Very well processed and I do like the clean image design .... a typical SUMP

Personally I am not too fuzzed about the " magenta " creeping in .... but this is just me and not a big deal . Tastes can vary ....

TFS Andreas

[Krishna Prasad kotti]

Very nice Head Turn. I would prefer a horizontal crop showing more habitat. The reason I say this is I have something similar where I choose a horizontal presentation.

Between desktop problems, not enough time for office. I did no get a chance to process that image.

TFS

[Brian Sump]

Hi Brian,

bird breed and light are very good for me. I enjoyed it very much, congratulations Brian. Applause
Congratulations

Volkan, you're great man. Thank you so much for offering such encouraging feedback!

What Volkan said. Yes to applause. The perfect framing includes the whole reflection plus jut the right amount below. The gradations in backgrounds color are enchanting. My fave is the slightly violet blue at the bottom. And that even has some gradations from side to side. Did I mention that the bird is super-sharp and beautiful? BTW, it's a she.

with love, artie

Artie, appreciate you offering your input and noting the efforts put in compositionally and with regard to colors.

Yes, thank you for pointing out the sex as evidence by the more exaggerated curve in the bill, correct?

This is sweet Brian! Love the reflection and the indigo color you mentioned is really nice! I will also give you an applause! Great work.

Kurt, appreciate you very much my friend :-)

I like your eye, terrific to utilize the colored reflection from a sign, what gorgeous dreamy colors that go hand in hand with a superb specimen! She's a beauty as well as the image.

Ann, I love that you took notice. The more we learn about the power of light and how the reflections can affect an image the greater the possibilities :-)

Very nice indeed, composition, pose, colouration, wow lovely shot.

Jon, I really love that you enjoyed this one. Thank you for your reinforcing feedback!

Hi Brian ... what's not to like here ??
Very well processed and I do like the clean image design .... a typical SUMP

Personally I am not too fuzzed about the " magenta " creeping in .... but this is just me and not a big deal . Tastes can vary ....

TFS Andreas

Andreas, always glad to hear your opinion as I value your processing skills.

Thank you for the positives! With regard to the magenta, can you please share where you see it 'creeping' in?

For the sake of conversation, I went to extra measures with this frame specifically to adjust WB in light of the conversation in my recent post about the magenta cast.

Specifically, in this frame I went back in and adjusted each of the color channel layers in the Channel Mixer to ensure it was accurate to my recollection. Below you will see a screenshot of each layer, and please take particular notice to how much green I added in the green channel, significantly reducing magenta.

Oh, and I will also say that when I pushed any further to the greens I really started to notice the effects in the orange and whites. To me (perhaps in my ignorance) when an image has suitable tone and warmth, shouldn't we either see a 'cast' or not in all of the colors? For instance, the whites and oranges feel spot on to me here based on the given light. If I adjust green to offset magentas in some of the browns (which I feel are also accurate) then we create an opposite cast in the other colors, correct?

[Brian Sump]

Very nice Head Turn. I would prefer a horizontal crop showing more habitat. The reason I say this is I have something similar where I choose a horizontal presentation.

Between desktop problems, not enough time for office. I did no get a chance to process that image.

TFS

Thank you Krishna. Sorry to hear of your computer issues.

FWIW, I took this one vertical in camera in order to get the reflection and it was my intended output here. Cropping horizontally really wasn't much of an option here, although I have several others in the series which I captured that way.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Super-duper! The soft colours and BG really make this for me. I love that you have the full reflection, but I although there is not much you could have done I do wish there was at least a faint view of the bill in the reflection (not just the base). I shouldn't complain though, as this is quite an appealing frame regardless.

[Jack Backs]

Sweet image. No nits for me.

[Wayne Niz]

Spectacular picture well done

[John Mack]

Looks great all around. Funny, I would have thought the blue was the sky. Great background.