This is another file from 2013. If I have the type of plover wrong, please correct me.
Shot it on the coast of Texas in probably the best light I’ve ever found a willing subject in. In post, I cropped slightly, adjusted the exposure with curves, resized, sharpened the bird, and reduced noise on the BG. The curves adjustment actually reduced the yellows in the file. All C&C welcome.
Techs:
D7000
550mm (using my old 200-400 f/4 + 1.4x tc), handheld lying on the beach
1/800
f/5.6
ISO 800
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Very nice, Lyle. I wouldn’t try to identify it. Plovers are too difficult unless you see a lot of them and I don’t. The time of year you took it might help people come up with an ID. Great low angle, and I do love that low light.
I am really bad at ID so I won’t even try (especially in this non-breeding plumage). I think this is really nice although I might back-off the red channel just a touch. There’s nothing wrong with as the color looks completely natural, but I think it starts to steal the show from the bird which you have captured perfectly here.
Thanks, @Adhika_Lie. The yellow/red saturation in photos like this is always tough for me to handle. I used to try and tone it way down so that the white feathers were truly white. But now I view the light as the subject just as much as the bird is. Still working through my editing approach, but always appreciate your thoughts.
Very pleasing frame. Nice low angle, pleasing comp.
I’m with @Adhika_Lie on the color. The warmth seems to overpower the scene. I did a quick color balance adjustment. See if this still works for you. I feel it is stronger.
Thanks, @Keith_Bauer. I like where you landed, although I’m not sure if I’d tame the colors quite that much in the end. I am curious what your steps were?
Created A Curves Adjustment layer as the top layer.
Selected a gray eyedropper and clicked on the layer that is the Blur / Average Layer
Delete the Blur Average Layer
Now you have a “color corrected” image with the background and a curve.
I reduced the opacity of the curves adjustment layer just a bit as it pushed the color balance too far.
This technique is a great one to remove color casts.
I would also be excited to take images and lifelike this. But I agree with both Adhika and Keith with respect to the saturation. Otherwise a very nice image. Well composed and superb depth of field.
That’s an incredible trick, @Keith_Bauer. Thanks for sharing. I’ll have to give this one a little time before deciding where to land. Always hard to balance the memory of the scene versus what the final product should look like.