I’ve been having fun shooting Caspian Terns in the water. This was taken just after sunrise, with some nice low sun providing backlighting. I was thrilled with the lighting coming through the wingtips!
Specific Feedback Requested:
any
Pertinent technical details or techniques:
Nikon D500 with 200-500 f/5.6 lens.
1/2000 second, f/5.6, 500mm (=750mm full frame equivalent), ISO 220.
Is this a composite? (focus stacks or exposure blends are not considered composites)
Not a composite
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Great capture!! The water highlights and splashes are well exposed and a very nice shape. I wonder if it’s possible to bring up the bird a little more – it might take some tedious masking.
An exciting shot! Shows how they fish to perfection - how fast they are! Backlighting is dramatic, but so hard to pull off and I think you did a great job here. The frozen water imparts such a feeling of energy and action - that bird just has to get a fish! Quite an emotional chord. Recently I got a shot of an osprey flying and it was the light through the wings that made it for me, just as this does here. Agree that you could lighten the bird itself a little, being careful not to make it too blue.
@Vanessa_Hill , @Diane_Miller , @Hans_Overduin , @Kris_Smith , Thanks for your feedback. I’m glad you like it!
Diane and Kris, Thank you for the suggestion to brighten up the Tern itself. I used the Quick Selection Tool in Photoshop and went around the bird…it took a few “+” and “-” with the tool to get it close enough. Not perfect but probably OK for this task. Made a mask with the selection, applied an adjustment curve, and increased the curve/brightness in the dark mid-tones. I don’t think it is too blue. What do you think?
Question - I’d have gone with a brush to lighten the bird rather than making a selection. Is there any particular advantage to using a selection instead?
@Kris_Smith , Well, they say there are many ways to get something done in Photoshop! Now that you mention it, I think a brush might have been easier! I’m not that experienced in PS, and I just wanted to practice selections and masking and adjusting a part of an image. Even though I got there at the end, I think my workflow to get there was fairly obtuse and unnecessarily complicated. But I’m trying.
Too right, @Mark_Muller - there are so many ways to get anything done in Ps and I’ve done the same thing - taken the long route to the same end just to practice and experiment. The end result is really nice. I only asked because it’s such a complex software and any advantage or efficiency I can pick up is useful.
Yes – much better!! The blue isn’t a problem for me, but you can tweak it using the color channels in the Curves adjustment window.
For me, a selection offers the most control. You can brush on lightening but you don’t have much control over the edges.
Here, the Quick Selection would be the one I’d try first. The problems with most selections is that they have a hard edge, and that will often show in an adjustment. I don’t see that here, but it’s something to be aware of. After you’ve made the adjustment you can select the mask on that layer and you get a Properties panel where you can soften or modify the edges with a slider, but only evenly all around.
I sometimes use Select Subject or Select Sky, if either stands out strongly enough, and that will sometimes give soft edges, such as around a tree with complex fine branches, but nothing is ever perfect. And depending on the adjustment you want to make, the soft edges may not be optimal – leaving a halo that shows after the adjustment.
In any case, after the selection I hit the Q key to see the selection as a translucent mask, red by default. (I can change the color and opacity as needed by clicking the Quick Mask icon in the Tools Panel.) Then I can paint corrections on the mask – both before and after the adjustment.
I often just go into quick mask mode and paint the selection directly. I can zoom in and refine it very easily.
Thanks Diane,
Incorporating my selection into adjustments is what is difficult for me…the order of workflow.
Your tips are helpful…I’m going to play with the Q key and Quick Mask for a while!
Would you say a Quick Mask is a shortcut for doing a Quick Selection and then hitting the “Select and Mask” button?
Incorporating a selection into an adjustment is easy – with the selection in place just make an adjustment layer and it’s automatically incorporated as a mask.
There’s no such thing as a quick mask – it’s just an icon named for a quick way to make a mask – and a quick way to view a mask as an overlay.
You can also view a mask in B/W by Opt-or Alt- (Mac or PC) clicking on its thumbnail in a layer. You can paint on it in that view, also.
Excellent image, Mark. I love the backlighting. The repost is an improvement. I think everyone finds a workflow they’re comfortable with and usually doesn’t mess much with it thereafter unless something special comes along or they learn a new trick. I tend to put my birds on a separate layer at the top of the stack. Other people prefer masks, but in my opinion, it’s whatever you’re comfortable with. I suspect I end up with larger files, but memory is pretty cheap.
A great shot, and the discussion about selection is really interesting. I just wonder if that egg-shaped thing in the middle of its right wing-edge is part of the bird or not. I know it’s a niggle, but I’d clone it out (unless it’s certainly a feature of the tern which I should know about!). I find an annoying thing about selecting is when you get extra BG bits which are exactly or almost the same colour as your subject.
Thanks @Mike_Friel. I don’t think it’s an anatomical part, maybe a water droplet, but not sure. Yes, this has been a helpful discussion about Selections!
I’m not that experienced in PS, and I just wanted to practice selections and masking and adjusting a part of an image. Even though I got there at the end, I think my workflow to get there was fairly obtuse and unnecessarily complicated. But I’m trying.