Horned Grebe

[Doug Hitchcox]

Here goes my first post, sorry in advance if something is wrong!

I created this image a month ago towards the end of my winter break. On one of my attempts to get close to this bird I found myself laying on my stomach on a grim covered dock with a grebe directly between the sun and myself, however it was very close (full frame at about 300mm). So I went back, only this time with a nice thick pair of waders. With the sun on my back I walked out into the water and slowly got closer and closer to him, only moving when he dove under. For the record, even in heavily insulated waders, Maine's ocean water temperature is extremely cold during January. It was a good thing that my lens has IS or else most of my images would be blurry from shivering! So after spending a couple hours in the water over two days I managed to come away with at least one shot worth sharing. I have only been doing this for a little over a year and know that I have a long way to go, so any comments and especially criticism is welcome!

A personal nit of this image is that the cheek is a little blown out. I noticed this while in the water by checking the histogram but after taking some shots at -0.3ev I thought this looked better overall.

Canon 30D with 100-400mm
f/5.6 1/640 ISO100 Slight crop

[Sid Garige]

Very nice. I added little more saturation and couple of round of USM.

[Axel Hildebrandt]

The repost looks much better. Great angle and details. I would tone down the whites underneath the eye.

[Jim Poor]

Very nice image, and good work getting this close! Did you try a multiplying layer or some other highlight recovery for the cheek? I think you could get some detail back.

The repost with sharpening and saturation is an improvement.

OT, Sid, that monkey always strikes me as a Marine because of the hairdo! No disrespect to Marines intended ;)

[Arthur Morris]

Though the image very soft even with Sids good work, there is a trick that can make it appear much sharper. See below. All comments as to what I did are welcome.

later and love, artie

ps: I do what I did to more than half of my images...

[Gayle Clement]

I'm fascinated with the transition of this image. I loved reading the story of Doug's work to photograph this grebe, really like Sid's suggestions and then was amazed when Artie improved it so much more. Artie, what did you do to so sharpen this and keep the appearance so natural?

[Brian Wong]

Hi Artie!

It is in the eyes ... did you darken and define the pupil???

[Jim Poor]

Well I see the newly remodeled pupil, but can't really pick out other differences without a side by side comparison without scrolling between.

[Arthur Morris]

It is "just the pupil" but the difference is huge. I select the pupil with an inverted Quick Mask and then due Hue-Sat on the Adjustment layer only!!! I de-sat 90-100 and darken 90-100 and then if it looks to cookie cutterish (too sharply defined), I reduce the opacity. As with everything else that I am sharing here this is either in ABP II or Digital Basics or both.

later and love, artie

ps: What happened to Doug???

[Doug Hitchcox]

Thanks for the critique everyone. I have been experimenting with this image so much: I had only been using Aperture and am now on a 30day trial of photoshop (obviously a much more powerful tool) I managed to get the white cheek fixed so i'll try reposting in a bit. I feel like I lost a lot of sharpening when I converted this image for posting. This was my first time posting to the web this way so ill work on it.

I definitely agree with the saturation boost but I'm having a hard time with the pupil. It looks a lot better but I think i'll just go back when the light isn't quite so intense.

Thanks again everyone!

[Doug Hitchcox]

So just incase anyone is still reading this thread, this is what I came up with. I decided to try art's idea with the eye. Also gave it a boost to saturation (as recommended) and gave it a lot of sharpening (hopefully not too much). After just a few days with this adobe trial I am sure that i'll be getting it, and then of course ABP II or Digital Basics (or both!). Haha, thanks again for the help everyone and feel free to critique this even more!

[Arthur Morris]

Hey Doug, Not sure what you did but your pupil looks a lot better than mine. Way to go!!!

It looks a zillion times better than the ORIG post. Congrats to you and to BPN!

Later and love, artie

[Jim Poor]

Much improved! Well done.