Straight-on SIF with fish

[Joerg Rockenberger]

This skimmer was photographed Wednesday at Bolsa Chica Wetlands, Huntington Beach, CA. Curious as for what you think of the crop. Struggled if I should go tighter or show the entire bird. But I thought to put the emphasis more on the fish in the bill without going too tight which makes the skimmer look like a frisbee.

Hope you enjoy. Thanks in advance. Best, JR

Canon 1DIV (rented), 500F4IS, 1/2000s, F4.0, Handheld, Manual Exposure, Center focus point w/ CFn-III-8-2

[Arthur Morris]

I am struggling a bit with color here on my new laptop. How do the reds look from your end? They look a bit funky from here.... I would level the image by pulling the ruler tool through the center of the pupils. Then I would crop equally from the sides.... Then more of a pano crop. The BKGR look noisy in spots and there are some grayish blotches also.

I do like the fish and the image is sharp enough. Note also the considerable noise in the underwings. What was the ISO? How did you determine the EXP?

[Joerg Rockenberger]

Arthur,

Thanks for the detailed feedback. Much appreciated.

The ISO was 400. The exposure was set for no-blinking highlights for terns. Hence, the shot was a bit underexposed as I didn't adjust for the skimmer as it suddenly came towards me.

In ACR, I increased the exposure by 0.45 which is responsible for the noise in the wings. Not sure I see the blotchiness in the background. The dark-gray areas at the bottom are waves...

The reds look OK on my monitor though not very saturated - due to the lack of direct light I presume...

I'll try your crop suggstion and will repost.

Thanks again. Best, JR

I am struggling a bit with color here on my new laptop. How do the reds look from your end? They look a bit funky from here.... I would level the image by pulling the ruler tool through the center of the pupils. Then I would crop equally from the sides.... Then more of a pano crop. The BKGR look noisy in spots and there are some grayish blotches also.

I do like the fish and the image is sharp enough. Note also the considerable noise in the underwings. What was the ISO? How did you determine the EXP?

[Arthur Morris]

YAW. From here, the reds are simply not right for a skimmer. They look a phony plastic red rather than orange.

[Jay Tan]

I aint sure what the color of beak should look like as this bird is not native to me but it does look red rather than orange on my screen. I always love head on flight images and this one with fish and good sharpness is well done. Pano crop will be best way to present this one. Wish for a less dull background too!

[Joerg Rockenberger]

YAW. From here, the reds are simply not right for a skimmer. They look a phony plastic red rather than orange.

Orange? Hmmm. All the skimmers I've seen the past week had beaks with pale-red to fire-truck red color. And that's also what my pictures show.

Maybe, the west coast fellows are different. A quick Google search suggests that the color indeed can vary from orange to deep red.

JR

[Joerg Rockenberger]

Jay,

Thx for the comment. And yes, I wished for golden light too but no luck with the weather there for most of the week. JR

[Arthur Morris]

Orange, red orange, who knows? What I do know is that the bill in the bird in your image looks funky and plastic-like. Please do not take it personally :) It just does not look right.

[Arthur Morris]

I got tired of talking about this one so I decided to do something about it :)

Among other things: leveled, cropped, worked on bill color, underwing noise reduction, sharpened black mask on head, and removed magenta from the BLACKs.

[Arthur Morris]

I never thought to ask, what is SIF? If it is skimmer in flight that is a stretch.....................

[Joerg Rockenberger]

You're obviously faster than me with editing. And better. :)

Thanks for the feedback and work. I'll see if I can get close to your version.

JR

PS: SIF was originally a typo but then I left it as it fitted a skimmer in flight... :)

[Arthur Morris]

I don't know about faster... :)

ps: Everything that I do is in Digital Basics....

[Art Kornienko]

I am struggling with the crop, I think to highlight the fish you would need to go a bit tighter.