Western Grebe Models

[dankearl]

I spent an hour with two Western Grebes on the Oregon coast, yesterday.
A lot of nice poses, separate and together.
I will probably do a little series.
Here is the pair together.
1/320
f8
iso400
420mm (300 f2.8 w/ TC)
Full frame

DSC_4533nx.jpg

[Randy Stout]

Dan:

The opposing poses work very well for me, good exposure. Front bird is sharp, just not enough DOF at that f/stop to get them both sharp. I think if you did some eye work and darkened the pupil on the back bird, toned down the highlight, the relative sharpness would look better.

I rather wish the raft of bubbles in front wasn't there. The way it is oriented, it makes me feel like the image needs CW rotation, but I think that may be an optical illusion.

Great looking birds.

Cheers

Randy

[Cheryl Arena Molennor]

Randy kinda said all I wanted to say. Beautiful birds. I don't mind the bubbles

[arash_hazeghi]

very nice Dan, I might selectively sharpen the far bird just a tad more and reduce the yellowish cast on the whites

[Robert Holguin]

Wonderful image. Really like the poses on both birds. Exposed very well, I dont mind the bubbles.
Well done.

[Josh Clark]

Great opposing pair shot Dan. I like how you got the both of them laying around in the sand. Nice soft light on them both, great job on the exposure. Can make out every bit of detail in the whites. Those red eyes really stand out. I don't mind the bubbles either.

[RakeshDhareshwar]

Lovely pose and sharpness . Not too distracted with the bubbles , but I feel there is a need for CW rotation .

[Stu Bowie]

Dan, central placement, opposite poses, and what seems like sweet light, all come together in this. I would try and selectively sharpen the back grebe a touch, and maybe take a bit off the bottom. I dont mind the bubbles, and the image does seem level.

[Doug Brown]

Nice image overall, but I'm surprised that only Arash commented on the strong yellow color cast. Here's a repost with the cast corrected.

[dankearl]

Doug, thanks for the repost and thanks to Arash for pointing it out.
I, however, do not quite understand where the caste is coming from.
I was able to take full frame photos of the Grebes and did very little PP.
(I should have sharpened the far bird more). I use auto WB and have a lot of
different shots from different angles.
It was an hour before sunset and sometimes the pair were on sand and sometimes
in the ocean.
I will post another photo later where there is no yellow caste, but I changed nothing.
I attribute it to the light and reflection and the angle I was shooting from,
otherwise I can't explain it.

[arash_hazeghi]

Doug, thanks for the repost and thanks to Arash for pointing it out.
I, however, do not quite understand where the caste is coming from.
I was able to take full frame photos of the Grebes and did very little PP.
(I should have sharpened the far bird more). I use auto WB and have a lot of
different shots from different angles.
It was an hour before sunset and sometimes the pair were on sand and sometimes
in the ocean.
I will post another photo later where there is no yellow caste, but I changed nothing.
I attribute it to the light and reflection and the angle I was shooting from,
otherwise I can't explain it.

Dan, the color cast comes from the warm evening light (white feathers reflect the light so the color is identical to the color of incident light) plus the auto WB settings of your camera which can change from scene to scene. I do like to keep some of the cast as a hint to the original scene but here it was too strong IMO.