It's not Love

[Michael Bertelsen]

It's not love , just hunger.
A rainy day last fall we photographed this 3 month old chick. that was continually hounding its parents for more food.

Nikon D300, 600mm f4, Manfrotto monopod.
exposure -1
f6.3
1/640 sec
iso 800
Your thoughts are welcome,

Michael Bertelsen

[Ryan Schain]

Cool image!

I like the composition. I wish the right bird was a bit further right, and I think the whites on its chest are a bit toasted. Also, I think if the bird on the left had its head a bit more towards you it could be even stronger. Otherwise this is a fine image and one I would be proud to have made myself.

Ryan

[Arthur Morris]

There were a very few hot pixels but surprisingly none on the neck of either bird.... Ran a Linear Burn there, boosted the contrast, and ran a large SH/H on the head....

I am thinking that the repost is a big improvement.

[Michael Bertelsen]

Thanks Ryan,
The loon has an incredibly white chest, and is one of the toughest birds to expose correctly, but this was a cloudy day and I think the chest is good.
Arthur, thanks for the repost, I do like the added contrast on the chicks head.
Did you use mainly the shadow adjustment for the adults head?
And where was the highlight used? Or did you did use it?

Thanks,

Michael

[Arthur Morris]

Thanks Ryan, The loon has an incredibly white chest, and is one of the toughest birds to expose correctly, but this was a cloudy day and I think the chest is good. Arthur, thanks for the repost, I do like the added contrast on the chicks head. Did you use mainly the shadow adjustment for the adults head? And where was the highlight used? Or did you did use it? Thanks, Michael

Hi Michael, First off, do know that exposing adult loons in when they are sunlit is about 50 times harder than it is on a cloudy day or in the shade :)

YAW. Contrast was applied to the whole image via an action. For more info, check out yesterday's blog post here.

Since I was working quickly I ran Shadow/Highlight on the whole image but pretty much limited to the head by setting the Tonal Width to 15. For this image I set the Amount to an amazingly high 85%. Doing that will usually introduce mega noise but it did not do that with this JPEG.

I did nothing with the Highlight portion leaving that at my default of 1/10/30. My complete thinking and defaults for Shadow/Highlight are detailed in Digital Basics along with probably more than 100 great Photoshop tips and my complete Digital Workflow. Many folks have written that it is the best $20 that they ever spent on photography :)

[Michael Bertelsen]

Arthur,

Great stuff !

Thanks again,

Michael

[Arthur Morris]

You are most welcome sir. How far from Pelee are you?

[Michael Bertelsen]

I'm up in Huntsville, thats 5 hours north of Pelee.
You always welcome to come up and join me.


Michael

[Arthur Morris]

Thanks. Any good warbler stuff up there in May or June?

[Michael Bertelsen]

Yes , but its hit and miss. Nothing like Pelee.
You should come up for Loons, I have at least 11 pairs of nesting loons.
Chicks hatch around mid June up here.

Michael

[Arthur Morris]

Thanks for the invite and the info. How do you access the loons?

[Michael Bertelsen]

I have a 18 1/2 foot Tracker Jon boat that I rigged just for loons and moose.
It has a 4o hp outboard and a electric motor. I trailer the boat to 9 different lakes giving me a continual supply of loons and cute little chicks.
They are only on the back for 5 to 7 days up here so I'm always bouncing around from lake to lake.

Michael

[Arthur Morris]

That sounds great :) I just may take you up on it....

[Bryan Hix]

The comp is wonderful and the repost puts it over the top. Nice team work. :)

[Nate Chappell]

Sweet interaction you captured well here Michael