Shore bird

[Wheeler McDougal Jr.]

I have never attempted shore birds mostly. There were several Willlets working the beach in front of our house this afternoon and so I went out to see what I could do. Please give me your opinions on this shot as I don't think I am very knowlegeble as to the best way to take them. I had the lens as close to the ground as I could get it. The shooting information is below:
Nikon D700
2010:02:28 14:44:47
1000mm
1000mm (in 35mm film)
Subject dist: 18.8m
1/800 sec, f/7.1
Mode: Av
Metering: Multi-segment
Exp comp: +2/3
ISO: 200
White balance: Fine weather
Flash: Off
File size: 61.3MB
Image size: 2297 x 1747
Color space: sRGB
Saturation: Normal
Sharpness: Normal
Contrast: Normal
Color profile: sRGB IEC61966-2.1

[Randy Stout]

Wheeler:

The shooting angle is good, like the pose, nice composition.

The light is somewhat harsh, making the image quite contrasty. You might try a small reverse s curve in post.

The back seems sharper than the head.

I think you will have fun with the shore birds if you keep working them. Earlier in the day, or with moderate overcast will really help.

Randy

[Arthur Morris]

Yes to harsh light, too contrasty, and also over-saturated a bit. But a loverly pose with the right COMP. The darker area in the UL BKGR bugs me a bit.

[Wheeler McDougal Jr.]

There is no doubt about the contrasty light, but there was very little I could do about that. Artie, I am reposting an image that I addressed the spot in the upper left hand BG and I desaturated the whole of the image a bit. Do you think it is improved? I think I do.
Mac

[Arthur Morris]

There is lots that you can do. Somebody above suggested a reverse S curve. I did that here, and added BLACK to the WHITES in Selective Color. It still looks over-sharpened but I could not do anything about that :)

After I posted it it still looked too bright so I did it again and pulled down the curve. :) :)

[Wheeler McDougal Jr.]

Artie-
Thanks for the effort on this. It is quite instuctional. Do you think I over-sharpened it? I used NIK output sharpener and left the defailts as they were and pained just the bird. WHat would you suggest in the way of sharpening? Here is a repost with no sharpening.

[Arthur Morris]

The posts and the reposts all look jangly/oversharpened to me. I just gave away a free excerpt on sharpening either in a recent Bulletin or on the Blog. If you find it, please post a link here :) I am in Honolulu getting ready to fly to Midway for two weeks. Life is tough. ;)

[Wheeler McDougal Jr.]

Artie-
I will look for the aforementioned article and post the link on this post. Thanks for the help and I hope you you have a wonderful trip to Midway. A place my uncle knew quite well many years ago.
Mac

[Ilija Dukovski]

I just gave away a free excerpt on sharpening either in a recent Bulletin or on the Blog. If you find it, please post a link here :)

http://www.birdsasart-blog.com/2010/...aptop-miracle/

[Arthur Morris]

Thanks Mac and Ilija, I am sitting here with Joe Van Os and most of the group getting ready to head to the charter hangar for the flight to Midway.