Fishing Tri Color

[Don Lacy]

I found this Tri Color fishing at Ahinga Trail over the weekend, I thought I had nailed the shot when chimping it but when I downloaded it at home I noticed I did not have enough DOF to hold the wing tips in focus, oh well I still think I am going to keep it.

40D, 70-200 f/2.8 (thanks Sid), 1/2000 at f/2.8, Manual Mode, Evaluative Metered, ISO 800, Raw, Hand Held, Cropped.

[Daniel Cadieux]

I'm OK with the blurred wingtips. To me they imply a fast action movement issue more than a DOF issue. Good action BTW! Is there more detail to recover in the whites? I find the reflection cut-off a bit awkwardly, especially how close to the edge the crook in the neck is. Do you have more room below to add back? If so you could do that and crop some off the right. Great view of the far wing, and I like that the head is turned our way.

[Don Lacy]

I'm OK with the blurred wingtips. To me they imply a fast action movement issue more than a DOF issue. Good action BTW! Is there more detail to recover in the whites? I find the reflection cut-off a bit awkwardly, especially how close to the edge the crook in the neck is. Do you have more room below to add back? If so you could do that and crop some off the right. Great view of the far wing, and I like that the head is turned our way.

Can not get any more detail out of the whites they are already in the 229 -235 range the raw showed slight clipping in some areas but more then enough information for ACR to recover. This crop is closer to the image as captured in camera. The more I look at this version the more I like it over the first one.

[Arthur Morris]

Depth of field schmepth of field. The killer head angle and pose make this one a winner for me. And I too like the wider version better than the image in pane 1. Do you know about Linear Burns?

[Don Lacy]

Do you know about Linear Burns?

I have heard of them but never have used it before here is a linear burn applied with a layer mask, how does it look

[Arthur Morris]

Looks better. Is this a 100% Linear Burn? (It does not look it....) How did you select the WHITES?

[Elsa Weber]

I use the exposure brush in Adobe Raw to bring up detail in white area that are a little burned-out. It works really great - most of the time. Sometimes I use it to lighten eyes. It is a little quicker than doing a burn or dodge and you can reverse it if you are unhappy. Great picture in any regard, I would keep it too.

[Don Lacy]

Looks better. Is this a 100% Linear Burn? (It does not look it....) How did you select the WHITES?

Copied the BG layer then used the quick select tool to select the whites, applied the linear burn, created a layer mask then filled it with black then painted the burn back in with the brush tool, used the opacity slider to fine tune the effect. I usually just worry about the tonalities when dealing with whites but this technique pulls detail I did not think existed it definitely will become part of my work flow :)

[Judy Lynn Malloch]

Really like the action captured in this one Don and the flying water-droplets . I would have like to have seen the whole reflection if possible. Lovely timing !!

[Arthur Morris]

Copied the BG layer then used the quick select tool to select the whites, applied the linear burn, created a layer mask then filled it with black then painted the burn back in with the brush tool, used the opacity slider to fine tune the effect. I usually just worry about the tonalities when dealing with whites but this technique pulls detail I did not think existed it definitely will become part of my work flow :)

Sounds a bit complex... Try Select/Color Range followed by Refine Edge to smooth things out. Then Control J. Then Linear Burn as the blending mode. Then simply reduce the opacity, usually to about 20% I have used 100% a few times and with a coot's bright white bill I ran 100% twice. I use that method all the time....