Shot this is Gulf Shores last summer.
In post, I cropped to vertical, resized, sharpened, and reduced noise on the BG. I had to add a little canvas on top. Then, I ran a global levels adjustment, removed some yellow from the whites in selective color, and dodged some of the whites with a Light 3 mask. All feedback welcome.
Hello, Lyle - a great flight shot. What am I looking at exactly, what is the lower part of the image? Foam or water? To make it looks like the deck of clouds one can see from an airplane, but am pretty sure it’s not flying that high ;-). Whatever it is, in like the image enormously ! Cheers, Hans
Hi @Hans_Overduin. I probably should have explained that from the beginning! The ground is sand, and the background is ocean. There is only a strip in focus because I was sitting on a lowish section of the beach trying to take a portrait of this guy standing on the sand in front of the ocean, and it just took off.
A nice flight shot with good detail and wing position. I like that there is some ground present, rather than just a blue sky (or ocean, in this case).
Hi Lyle, a really nice image. So you are a Gulf Shores devotee like me? I’ve been several times during April over the years. Like being in birding heaven.
I have no issues with this image other than I’d like to see a bit more space in front of the bird. That’s my only suggestion. I like it alot.
Jim
Beautiful wing position and excellent processing, Lyle. The whites look just the way they should. The bit of sand behind the bird is wonderful.
Hi Lyle, as stated by Dennis the sand flying behind the bird is really cool. I imagine these are tough birds to catch in flight so this is really well done.
I really like the brightness of the white plumage against the blue background. Even though I’m aware that’s foam on the bottom of the image, it looks as if it’s flying above the clouds. Wonderful composition.
The wing upstroke is perfect and the ocean background is perfect, Lyle. I also like the strip of sand there, it just grounds the image and gives context to the flying sands behind the bird.
Thanks, Lyle - now that you mention it, I can see it 
