LeHardy Rapids Dipper

[Arthur Morris]

Denise and I both loved LeHardy Rapids. There were dippers and mergansers and tons of moving water with gold and blue reflections should your tastes run to pleasing blurs. This American Dipper image was created with the Canon 800mm f/5.6L IS lens and the EOS-1D Mark IV. ISO 800. Evaluative metering +2/3 stop: 1/320 sec. at f/5.6.

Don't be shy; all comments welcome.

[adrian dancy]

I imagine that some may argue that the background competes to much with the bird. I don't care. I could look at this image all day long. I love the delicious colours and the lighting. There is a bit of a halo on the bird's lower bill and I might , for my personal taste, just crop from the top a tiny bit. All in all a superb image.

[Tony Whitehead]

Love the classical blue and gold and the almost spotlit appearance of the dipper, Artie. Wonder about less above and more below?

[Art Kornienko]

Hi Artie, I see the halo too. I find the bg a bit busy for my tastes, but do like the gold reflections, would have been nice on flat calm water.

[Andrew Merwin]

A great image. I am ok with the BG as this is the dipper's environment. The colors reflected in the water are lovely.

[Sidharth Kodikal]

Exposure looks great. Love the spotlight effect and the awesome details.
Another vote for less above and more below.
Are you happy with the HA, Artie?
For some reason - could be the white spot beside the eye - I seem to want a bit more head turn toward the viewer.

[Karen Summers]

A good image I normally like a less fussy background but do like a good habitat shot which this is, there is a halo round the beak though

[subhrashis]

Artie, I find I like these 'different' shots from you even more than your 'classic' (bird + pure color background) shots.... I love this one, especially the water and of course the bird. Taking the top off with 'scroll crop' does seem better.

A question, is the 'spotlight effect' due to reflected sunlight, or was there some fill flash involved?

I don't know if the bird's tail is supposed to be bluish, but it is, along with some of his top, getting lost in the patterns in the water. Can something like slight darkening the bg water, edge burn/dodge etc be done to improve separation?

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Artie, this is a such a nice environmental shot....really shows where these birds operate. Perfect subject placement to go with all the other good stuff.

[Geraldo Hofmann]

I really like the picture and I would be happy with the background, it still contains some information about the environment the bird lives. It looks like the spot-light didn't cover the whole bird. It is difficult for me to describe but the belly and lower breast region is more pronounced because of this than the head and the upper breast of the bird. I guess the reason is that the light was reflected by the water.

But I would be very happy with this shot ... parabens!!

Geraldo

[Bhushan Dalvi]

This is a beautiful picture. The blue and golden background works very well. Love the reflection created on the bird lighting it up nicely.

[Andrew Merwin]

FWIW, the Yellowstone River banks @ LeHardy Rapids are heavily treed with very tall pines. With the autumnal sun angle, it is difficult to get uniform light there at this time of the year, especially early in the AM. I think that the reason the tail has a blue tint to it is because it is in shade.

[Kiran Poonacha]

Really loved the feel the water is giving to this frame Guru.. the bird looks very pretty too..

[Stu Bowie]

Interesting effect of the water, and just love the colours of the water. The little guy is separated nicely from the water BG, and I would maybe just take a tad off the top.

[Arthur Morris]

By popular demand :) Thanks all for your comments. Back in a second.

[Arthur Morris]

More below would not have worked because of a big foreground rock. The middle of the bird was actually spot lit but the head and tail were not. I lightened the head using Tim Grey Dodge and Burn. Whatever blue is there is from the shade.

[Tony Whitehead]

Repost looks great, Artie. Have you played with Nik Viveza at all? I find it great for making local adjustments.

[Arthur Morris]

As for the halos, I do not see them around the bill but that does not mean that they are not there.... I had to re-do my generic JPEG action on our new office computer as my laptop is down. To me the whole thing looks a bit over-sharpened. I need to revisit my sharpening settings in the action once my laptop is up and running.


Tony, I will be getting started with Viveza soon. I think. Is it a NIK product?

[Tony Whitehead]

Is it a NIK product?

Yes, Artie, it is from Nik.

[Arthur Morris]

Thanks Tony. I will be working with it soon. I just downloaded the new NIK HDR program. Now I gotta figure out how to use it.

[Paul Randall]

I don't see the halo either but agree it looks a tiny bit oversharpened. The original presentation works well for me in terms of comp. I too would have guessed that a small amount of fill flash was used, the spot lighting has done the job for you though:)

[Arthur Morris]

Thanks Paul and all. I posted one that I like a lot more in today's Bulletin. :)

[David Billingsley]

Artie,

Love the re-post composition and the reflections. Very nice detail and sharpness. I would love to be at this place. :)