Short-billed Dowitcher preening

[Kerry Perkins]

Captured at the Salton Sea, this dowitcher was preening in the early evening light. I was lying down on the beach to get this shot. Cropped, sharpened, etc. in CS5. Did a little cleanup of the water but not much else.

7D, EF400mm f/5.6L
Manual mode, f/8@1/1250 ISO 400 WB 5100K
AI Servo autofocus, hand-held no flash

[nancy hazen]

Very nice Kerry. It looks like you had a great trip to the Salton Sea. I've never been there, but it looks like a great place for birds.
Nancy

[Dan Brown]

Stunning capture, Kerry! Love it all! The eye contact is special!

[John Chardine]

Yes, this is very sweet indeed Kerry. I love the warm tones of the water and the preening action. The only thing I might try is a crop from the bottom to remove the body reflection in the water, and a little of the left.

Re. the Salton Sea, I hear a lot of phalaropes go through in the fall. Would love to photograph there.

[Mats Honkamaa]

Very nice light and impressive details. I see you are using the same setup as me with the 7D and 400/5.6. Good to know my equipment has capacity to deliver photos like this, just need to get out there practice I guess :)

[Pete Padilla]

Very nice Kerry. It's a wall-hanger for sure. Is it a recent photo?
Pete

[Kerry Perkins]

Thanks everyone, I appreciate your comments!

Mats, the setup we use is certainly capable of making nice images!

Pete, nice to see you here. This was captured during my last trip at the end of last year. It was either new year's eve or new year's day.

[John Chardine]

Very nice light and impressive details. I see you are using the same setup as me with the 7D and 400/5.6. Good to know my equipment has capacity to deliver photos like this, just need to get out there practice I guess :)

Mats- I have the 400/5.6 and it's a great lens. It would be a killer lens of Canon released a version II with 4th gen. IS and the new coatings!

[christopher galeski]

good image,good detail,loverly colors.thanks.

[Gerald Kelberg]

I really enjoy the intimacy of this shot - it brings me right there with the subject, and the subject is perfectly at ease, getting on with its preening. The tones of the subject and the background seem to harmonize really beautifully.

Also there seems to me to be a "luminosity", almost a glow from the subject that I see in many images that I like, but don't seem to be able to achieve yet myself.

Finally, you seem to have handled the sharpening very deftly as well. What routine do you use for this?

Enjoyed this image a lot, thanks.

[Kerry Perkins]

Gerald, thank you so much for your comments. I work very hard at getting close to my subjects and putting them at ease with my presence. This may seem like a small point, but since I don't have a very long lens it has become important to me.

It is no accident that animals are frequently found in environments that allow them to blend in due to the colors of their plumage or fur. The key is to look for these areas and be aware of the background. The "glow" is mostly due to having a background that is lower in luminosity than your subject. Also, if you look closely in the bird's eye, you will see that there is water behind me as well as in front of me, as evidenced by the two reflections of the sun, which means that I am getting a bit of "bounce fill" from the reflection of the water behind me. The angle of the reflection helps fill in some light from the bottom.

I have found a "killer" combination for sharpening that seems to work really well for birds. First I will apply Topaz Detail, with only the "small detail" and "small detail boost" sliders active. A typical image will require about .16 of small detail and .03 for small detail boost. After that, I apply a round of USM in PS. Depending on this image size the settings will vary, but for this one I think I used 150-0.3-0. Your sharpening may vary, but that is the general workflow.

I'm glad you enjoyed the image and I appreciate your feedback!

[Reynir Skarsgard]

Great colours in this shot and I like the eye contact. Very sharp details, I'll have to try that sharpening technique you described.

[Kerry Perkins]

Hello all, I just wanted mention that I made a typo in my original post. The correct setting in Topaz Detail for "small detail" is 0.16, not what I had previously posted. I put the zero in the wrong place.