Crested Tern Bath

[Tom Rambaut]

Another one that I have saved for this month.

1d MK4, 500mm + 2x ext, 1/500 @ 13, iso 400, EV -1/3

Thanks, Tom

[Stu Bowie]

Tom, were you in the water when you captured this - great low angle however you captured this. I like how you have brought out the eye in this, as they are always difficult against the blacks of their heads. Sharp where it counts, and the flying droplets add interest.

[Tom Rambaut]

Tom, were you in the water when you captured this - great low angle however you captured this. I like how you have brought out the eye in this, as they are always difficult against the blacks of their heads. Sharp where it counts, and the flying droplets add interest.

Stuart - it was low tide out on a rock shelf and I was in a whole two inches of water - the Crested Terns were using a pool the was a little bit deeper and I set up the tripod low and sat on a rock to take this.

[RakeshDhareshwar]

Wonderful angle , sharp and the drops of water add to this one !!

[Ofer Levy]

Very nice behaviour shot. Like the low angle, eye contact and action.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Nice low angle on this bathing scene. Good job with the exposure and in waiting for the right HA (or choosing the correct file to process and share!). As posted the BG looks to be suffering from too much jpeg compression with a somewhat posterized look...I'm sure the original is nice and smooth.

[Dan Busby]

It really is a bonus when you can get such a good low angle like this. Good focus on the head and nice water drops.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Lovely shot I like the low angle. If it were mine I would lower the highlights on the bill and sharpen a tad more. the same goes for the neck, I would also try a tad more sharpening on the black plumage. These may not work but I suspect they just may and lift the image even a little more.

[Tom Rambaut]

Nice low angle on this bathing scene. Good job with the exposure and in waiting for the right HA (or choosing the correct file to process and share!). As posted the BG looks to be suffering from too much jpeg compression with a somewhat posterized look...I'm sure the original is nice and smooth.

Why is this Jpeg compression happening Daniel? - what part of my workflow am I doing wrong?

[Tom Rambaut]

Lovely shot I like the low angle. If it were mine I would lower the highlights on the bill and sharpen a tad more. the same goes for the neck, I would also try a tad more sharpening on the black plumage. These may not work but I suspect they just may and lift the image even a little more.

The RAW file was not super sharp to start with and took more sharpening than I have done on images in the past. This was the only frame with the HA I wanted so I used it anyway.

[Jim Crosswell]

I like the low angle and water drops. Well done Tom!

[Arthur Morris]

Excellent job with the SH, EXP, and especially the look back head turn. Only the darker blue water behind the head bugs me. You might be able to lighten it with something like Viveza....

[Daniel Cadieux]

Why is this Jpeg compression happening Daniel? - what part of my workflow am I doing wrong?

It could be your resizing for this image. Was it under 250kb for uploading?

[Tom Rambaut]

It could be your resizing for this image. Was it under 250kb for uploading?

Yes it would have been - I think it went something like this

1. save a jpeg from the unsharpened master file and sharpen with unsharp mask.
2. resize jpeg to 1024.
3. sharpen again if need be using another unsharp mask.
4. save jpeg for web using 'save for web and other devices' in CS5.

I'm saving the file at around 100kb for posting here.