one instead of 1000s

[John Chardine]

I normally make images of large numbers of these Semipalmated Sandpipers as they try to escape from marauding Peregrine Falcons. In this case I had just a few on the beach and so could concentrate on one.

I cropped to about 50% of original size, straightened, boosted saturation a little in LAB colour, ran some noise reduction on the BG, and sharpened. Also used the clone tool to even out the tonality of a few BG splotches. Hope you like it! Comments welcome of course!

Date: 11 September, 2010, Time: 1208h
Model: Canon EOS-1D Mark IV
Lens: EF500mm f/4L IS USM +1.4x, 700 mm
Program: Manual
ISO 800, 1/800s, f/6.3
Exp. comp.: 0.0
Flash: on, Flash exp. comp.: -1.4

[Lance Peters]

Hi John - Looks good to my eyes - like the low shooting angle and eye contact.
Fine feather details looks good.
Some might complain about the BG - IMHO - gives a sense of habitat.
Like it!

[Arthur Morris]

I love everything--esp. the soft earth tones--about this one-except for the hill of sand behind the bird which unbalances the COMP for me. Maybe a tad more off the back would help....

[John Chardine]

Thanks guys, and I agree Artie about the imbalance. Maybe I'll try some extreme editing as an exercise to see if I can improve this.

[Michael Gerald-Yamasaki]

John,

Greetings. I like the detail and movement (since these guys seem in perpetual motion)... Similar to the Semipalmated Plover you posted a few days ago, but with improvements - feet, movement, bg. Are they about the same size?

Thanks guys, and I agree Artie about the imbalance. Maybe I'll try some extreme editing as an exercise to see if I can improve this.

Not so extreme for editing... Shift (duplicate, opacity to 50%, move to cover problem to taste, return opacity to 100%), mask & paint... Touch up with clone... not more than a couple of minutes.

Thanks for sharing.

Cheers,

-Michael-

[John Chardine]

Thanks for the hints Michael. Although it would be a challenging edit for me- to do it convincingly at least- I was referring by "extreme" to the level of manipulation of the image. Projects like this though really provide good experience to do the simpler edits.

[Julie Kenward]

Beautiful image, John. Did you think about maybe just blurring/smudging that area so it blended in with the rest of the FG and BG? That might be the easiest way to pull the attention away from it.

Love the bird...wish that one moving foot had been a little more in focus but it's a minor thing in this beautiful image.