Black Skimmers

[Indranil Sircar]

This is definitely not the best of the HA for an image!! I took this image earlier this morning when the water was calm and these skimmers were flying around. I got a good number of shots but liked this one after it passed me with the wings forming a s-curve. I would have liked a better reflection to compensate for the HA (or lack of it!). Do you think this works as a composition?

Settings were -

40D, Sigma 50-500mm @ 500mm
1/640 sec, f/8 Mode: Av Metering: Evaluative Exp comp: +1/3 ISO: 400

Applied bg NR, color adjustment and usm. All C&C would be appreciated.

~ Indranil

[Alfred Forns]

Composition works fine you avoided merges Don't mind the birds moving away just wish I could see the heads clearly. Might want to have a little more room up top in the direction of movement than behind !!!

Getting two is really difficult and you came up with a good one, must have been a great day !!!! ... next time you encounter them try a couple of motion blurs also !!!

[Jeff Cashdollar]

I love this shot, it work for me and I even like the way the heads are tucked away and the beaks protrude evenly.

The BG is fantastic and the ripples in the reflection are great. The composition is over the top and body shapes are beautiful.

Just curious, what method do you use to apply NR to only the bg, feel free to send me a PM and I will share my method as well.

I would print and hang if it were mine.

[Desmond Chan]

I'm kind of with Al on this. Flying away could work depending on what you want to tell instead of simply making an eye pleasing image. But personally I would much prefer to see the birds with their heads up like...when they're flying normally and not as presented (definitely not like the nearest bird). Like the reflections though as they're the only way to tell it's the water below the skimmers.

[Lance Peters]

Hi - Im with AL on this one as well - love the composition - just wish to see the heads a little more :)

[Gus Cobos]

Hi Indranil,
I like this image very much...the fact that the birds are not touching each other is a plus...I too would have liked to have seen more of the heads, but at times we can get what nature gives us...the reflection is very nice. this has a good feel to it...I too agree with Mr. Forns on a little more room on top...looking forward to your next one...:cool:

[Connie Mier]

I can overlook the HA, it's the abstract quality with the beautiful reflections that makes it work for me.

[Harold Davis]

peaceful and fun, like two young kids playing and having a blast. love it!

[Indranil Sircar]

Thank you very much for all the feedback... here is the repost with more room on top...

...Getting two is really difficult and you came up with a good one, must have been a great day !!!! ... next time you encounter them try a couple of motion blurs also !!!

Thanks Al, I did have a good time observing their behavior. This pair raised a single chick this summer and it was training time as they flew around with the juvenile making it to skim the water few times... I went back this morning hoping to get some more of the action but they did not move from the island for hour and half I was out there!

Just curious, what method do you use to apply NR to only the bg, feel free to send me a PM and I will share my method as well.

Thanks Jeff, typically I use the technique Arite has provided in the educational resources forum http://www.birdphotographers.net/for...ad.php?t=37503. I do use a combination of quick selection and quick mask to select the subject followed by inverse (ctrl-shift-i) and then apply reduce noise filter and occasionally Gaussian blur. It does introduce artifacts on the edge of the subject which I manually use clone stamp with a lower opacity at 300% or higher depending on the edge complexity. I have also tried using Topaz Denoise and like it a lot. I am still testing it before deciding to use that as my default tool.

[Desmond Chan]

Just curious, what method do you use to apply NR to only the bg

If I may jump in, a simple way to do it is to make a copy of the original layer of the image and apply noise reduction to that copy. Then add a mask to the NR'ed copy, use brush to paint the area that you don't want NR applied.

You can use the same method to selectively sharpen, blur, change colors, etc.

[Indranil Sircar]

Thanks Desmond. That definitly works. I have used it for other blending modes but not NR/blur.

[Julian Mole]

Hi Indranil,

Just wanted to say I like the reposted version of your image. I wasn't sure about the original, but the extra space above the birds makes a lot of difference - as a beginner, I guess I recognised something wasn't right with it, I just wasn't sure exactly what it was!

(Also I notice you have a dark spot at the top of the image, straight up from the beak of the left hand Skimmer, you might want to Clone that out if it bothers you.)

[Indranil Sircar]

Thank you Julian. I appreciate your feedback. I will fix the black spot on my original.