Juvie Forster's Wing Stretch

[Arthur Morris]

I was knee deep in the muck at the north end of the East Pond at Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge the day before the recent JBWR/Nikcerson Beach IPT was to being. I had made a long series of images of this bird with the subject parallel to the film plane but when it stretched its near wing the image just did not look good do I went up ahead of the bird in hopes that it would stretch again and that it would look a lot better with the bird angled towards me.

Canon 800mm f/5.6L IS lens with the 1.4X II TC and the EOS-1D Mark IV. ISO 400. Evaluative metering +2/3 stop: 1/320 sec. at f/11.

Don't be shy; all comments welcome.

ps: I thought that this one was worth mega-log clean-up (see Pane 2) with the Patch Tool, the Spot Healing Brush, and a series of Quick Masks all as descried in Digital Basics and in Robert O'Toole's APTATS I.

pps: Yeah, I too wish that the bird had been perched up on the little bump so that the foot was visible :)

[Arthur Morris]

Here is the original capture.

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Artie, this is quite superb. Great light and that wing stretch definitely works very well with this angle. Lots to learn here for me. Bg and exposure excellent as usual. Log is looking a little too clean...but thats perhaps because you have shared the orig :-) thx a bunch for sharing the orig.

[Arthur Morris]

Hi K. YAW. I agree. The log looks like polished driftwood. Took me at least 30 minutes....

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Hi K. YAW. I agree. The log looks like polished driftwood. Took me at least 30 minutes....

to that, I can only say "just 30 min?" :-)

[Gyorgy Szimuly]

Never seen that bird in such yellow on the sides. Where it comes from? Guess by the reducing hot areas.

Szimi

[Arthur Morris]

The sun was quite low. I will be interested in what others have to say as that was an area of concern. The whites are not at all blown.

[Ed Prete]

for a moment I almost thought you brought a powerwasher there. ;)

very nice image. Did you lighten under the wing Art? The original looks like its a hair darker

[Mark Young]

Congrats on the wing stretch, our birds here usually take 40mins between stretches, or so it seems! ;)

I prefer the whiter original version over the yellower edited version. Two things I liked in the unedited version was the eye stripe is lighter and the log looks more natural.

[George Scott]

Hi Artie, great image - love the wing stretch and the pro job on the driftwood works for me, definitely less distraction from the main subject. If I could have it all, I'd ask for the bird in the original plus the log in the second since to my eye at least the whites look slightly yellow in the second image.

[Arthur Morris]

Thanks all. I will be easy to bring in the ORIG whites. Will do this afternoon and repost. Thanks guys and gals. It is 38 am right now; I fly back to Orlando at 7am.

[Doug Brown]

Nice job with the log Artie, and I love the pose! I do find the whites a little too well-controlled; they look just fine in the original IMO.

[Danny Laredo]

Lovely image Artie, sweet pose and light.

[Arthur Morris]

Okie dokie. By popular demand. Here is a repost with the original whites and the original underwing shadow :) Now, are the whites too white? :) :) :)

[Arthur Morris]

ps: I pretty much knew what was coming so I had saved the reposted version to make my life easier :)

[Dany Tielens]

The third version is for me the best!..nice work Artie!

[Nico Steenberg]

My vote is for the 3rd version. Great PP work done. Like the comp, pose and bg. Bird is well expose on the whites and blacks