Fairy Prion

[Dean Ingwersen]

Hi all,

This image was taken on off the coast of Victoria, Australia. The weather was awful - cold, windy, and cloudy all day (and a horrid swell as you can see :(). I was trying to get an action shot showing the bird running on the surface of the water. Any thoughts welcome - particularly about colour cast (which I've tried to correct by adjusting white balance and removing some cyan).

Thanks for looking

Canon 20D handheld, 100-400L IS (@200mm), 1/1600, f/5.6, ISO 400.
Photoshop CS - ~70% crop, levels, curves, WB, selective colour, USM

[Axel Hildebrandt]

I understand your frustration perfectly. The keeper rate at pelagic trips can be annoyingly low. :) It doesn't look like a color cast but the plumage appears somewhat gray. I'm not familiar with this species but assume there should be some white, right? I think the crop works well. Low angle, running bird, wave and horizon makes this a nice composition.

[john jackson]

Hi Dean

Small seabirds are hard to capture, particularly in a heavy swell, and this is great. I particularly like the foot contact with the water and the droplet on the beak. I don't see a major colour cast here, but the bird is pretty neutral so have you tried selecting off that?

[Dean Ingwersen]

Hi Axel and John,

Thanks for your comments. The underbelly of the bird should be a whitish colour, while the back is a grey-blue with a black line across the upperwing. So to Axel - I think the colours are as true as they can be given the light.

John, can you please explain what you mean by "selecting off the bird"? Thanks.

Cheers, Dean

[Daniel Cadieux]

I think this photographed shows the small size of the bird perfectly. I like the image alot, I can feel the wave swelling before my eyes. The bird may be relatively small in the frame but it is effective that way for this photo. I also don't mind the overall grayish tones.

[Glenn Ehmke]

This is wonderful Dean.I simply adore you're portrayal of the action in this setting. Nicely composed, the bird is in just the right spot and not cropped too much. Truly fantastic.

[john jackson]

John, can you please explain what you mean by "selecting off the bird"? Dean

In Lightroom you can use the eyedropper "white balance selector" to pick an area on the image and set the white balance off that. Photoshop has a similar tool.

[Dean Ingwersen]

Of course...please forgive my ignorance I just didn't understand what you meant:o.

I did that initially but I don't think I selected off the right spot. Here is the image again with the white balance point selected off the brightest spot of the birds 'eyebrow'...perhaps blows the highlights of the breaking wave a little?? Thanks for your comments, and for everyone elses too.