Red-kneed Dotterel

[Mark Young]

G'day everyone,

This is my first post of an image for critiquing, it was taken about 5 weeks ago in Western Sydney.
I still consider myself fairly new to photography, having only had a DLSR for a year now, and my PS skills are rudimentary to say the least.

Canon 400D, 400mm, F/5.6, ISO 200, 1/640sec. Tripod
PP: Crop is 50% of original. Slight CWR, levels, curves and contrast adjusted. USM. Noise reduction and blur applied to BG.
Some detail recovered in blown white chest.

My aim was to try and make the bird a bit more distinct from the bg, but I'm not sure whether I like the bg being as colourful as it is.

I'm looking for ways to improve this shot, whether it be in field or in PP, so all comments appreciated.

Regards,
Mark

[Alfred Forns]

Big Warm Welcome Mark

Lot of good things with this image, sharp, excellent shadow detail and fine pose. As presented would like a little more room around the bird since it seems tight. Pose wise would take several to chose and try for one with legs not overlapping (fine tuning) In PS can work on the bg and remove some of the white spots particularly by the bill, anything very light tends to stick out and compete with the subject !!

Looking forward to the next one !!! ... your doing well !!!

[Gus Cobos]

Hi Mark,
A big warm welcome to our BPN family...I like the image and the ultra low capture angle, you have fine feather details with a good head angle and good eye contact...:) You were given excellent tech. info and sound advise by Mr. Forns...I might add lightening the eye just a little, not too much and selective sharpening it a tad more...:cool:

[Lance Peters]

Hi Mark - a big warm welcome to the BPN family.
Nice first post - lots to like here and doing well.
Agree with AL'S comments about a little more room all around - a little tight - especially on the bottom some more room for the virtual feet.
Detail is good, Good HA and good sharp clear eye.
Looking forward to seeing more :)

[David Stephens]

Great first post. You got the exposure spot on, with no highlight burnout on those light area. Focus is perfect with lots of nice details.

I like the tight framing. I'm a noob here, so take my view with a grain of salt. In these internet sizes I still want to see detail and often long to see sharp images like this in more detail of a larger size. If you added more room, then I'd lose some of that detail. As I look around at the work of others, I see lots of tight framing and lots that chose more room. I think the added space is good advice to consider, but I prefer it as is.

Oh, I like the leg-up pose, because it suggests stalking behaviour that we typcially see with these birds.

I'm not trying to be disagreeable, just pointing to an alternative view that I believe in.

Dave

[Dan Brown]

Hi Mark. I agree with the addition of canvas, NR and cloning of the BG. In my repost, I selected the bird and a little of the sharp water with the quick selection tool, cleaned up the selection with a quick mask, adding and subtracting by painting the red in and erasing it out in quick mask mode. Then I created a layer via cut, applied NR with a gaussian blur, cloned out some of the bright spots, added canvas to the top, bottom and right edges. This is a lot of work but with an image that you like, it's worth learning. All of this would have produced a much better result if preformed on the converted RAW file! For most of these techs, you can check out the digital photograph workflow forum, I think there is an educational thread there. Better yet, purchase Artie's Digital basics cd and/or Robert Otoole's APTATS cd. Good luck.

[Lance Peters]

Nice repost Dan!!

[David Stephens]

Nice repost Dan!!

Yes, very nice. :)

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

Hi Mark
Welcome to the BEST site, where you will ACTUALLY LEARN. Remember our discussion last week? :)

Excellent work with your equipment considering how small these shorebirds really are. That's some great stalking you did mate. Looks like you have plenty of space around it, so personally I'd recommend a looser crop. you could always post the original as a jpeg for suggestions by BPN members. You will learn stacks here. :)

BTW, 3 Mistletoebird nests, and Red-browed Finch, you know where. :)


Great PP work by Dan; agreed.

[Mark Young]

Thanks everyone for the great advice.

Hi Mark. I agree with the addition of canvas, NR and cloning of the BG. In my repost, I selected the bird and a little of the sharp water with the quick selection tool, cleaned up the selection with a quick mask, adding and subtracting by painting the red in and erasing it out in quick mask mode. Then I created a layer via cut, applied NR with a gaussian blur, cloned out some of the bright spots, added canvas to the top, bottom and right edges. This is a lot of work but with an image that you like, it's worth learning. All of this would have produced a much better result if preformed on the converted RAW file! For most of these techs, you can check out the digital photograph workflow forum, I think there is an educational thread there. Better yet, purchase Artie's Digital basics cd and/or Robert Otoole's APTATS cd. Good luck.

Thank you Dan. Your repost is awesome, and it's exactly what I was trying to achieve. There are some things that you've done that I'm not familiar with at all, like..

...cleaned up the selection with a quick mask, adding and subtracting by painting the red in and erasing it out in quick mask mode. Then I created a layer via cut, applied NR with a gaussian blur, cloned out some of the bright spots, added canvas to the top, bottom and right edges.

I'll have to do some more research to bring myself up to speed with these techniques. Are they included in the CD you've recomended?

Also wondering what people think about the eye? Is that demarcation through it too distracting? In the original image the eye was a lot darker, so I've lightened it up a bit to get some detail in the bottom half. But I'm not sure I like it or dont like it.

Hi Mark
Welcome to the BEST site, where you will ACTUALLY LEARN. Remember our discussion last week? :)

Excellent work with your equipment considering how small these shorebirds really are. That's some great stalking you did mate. Looks like you have plenty of space around it, so personally I'd recommend a looser crop. you could always post the original as a jpeg for suggestions by BPN members. You will learn stacks here. :)

BTW, 3 Mistletoebird nests, and Red-browed Finch, you know where. :)


Great PP work by Dan; agreed.

Thanks Akos, I'ld have to agree with you about the learning part. The level of talent here is fantastic.
Interesting to note is the advice given about the differences between the 2 possible new lenses I'm looking at buying, 300mmL IS F4 + 1.4TC or the 100-400mml IS. I would say that based on using yours the other week, and what I've read here, the 300mm + TC is by far the better option. Had I not used yours or come here, I almost certainly would have purchased the 100-400mm.

Once I've found out how to do what Dan's done, I'll do a repost of this picture.

[Dan Brown]

Thanks everyone for the great advice.



Thank you Dan. Your repost is awesome, and it's exactly what I was trying to achieve. There are some things that you've done that I'm not familiar with at all, like..



I'll have to do some more research to bring myself up to speed with these techniques. Are they included in the CD you've recomended?

Also wondering what people think about the eye? Is that demarcation through it too distracting? In the original image the eye was a lot darker, so I've lightened it up a bit to get some detail in the bottom half. But I'm not sure I like it or dont like it.

Your welcome Mark! I think that most of the techs will be included in the CDs. I don't know if they include the painting/erasing of the red area that appears when you are in Quick Mask mode but probably. If not, once you have entered QM (in CS3, lower left area of the screen on the tools pallete, it's a square with a circle in it) you can use the paint brush tool to paint opac red or erase it with the erase tool (play with the size and hardness as needed with these brushes). The edges of the red represent the "marching ants" and by clicking the QM button, you can go from red to marching ants, back and forth to check your selection. If you have already started a selection as I did with your bird, the red will already be there, so, you can clean it up to conform with the edges of your bird, etc. I'm sure that all the other stuff that I preformed will be covered in the CDs.

As for the eye, I wouldn't do much to it other than maybe brighten the orbital ring a little.

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

I had another look Mark since you asked about the eye. To me it looks fine as is. :)