Cindy Smith
May 2023 - "Roseate"
Original
About the Image(s)
The beautiful roseate spoonbill gets its color from the carotenoids in the crustaceans they eat. They forage in shallow fresh or saltwater. With the rise of the ocean, they are moving further north of the Everglades. In the past few years they have been seen as far north as Michigan and Wisconsin.
Sony a7iii, f/8.0, 1/200, iso 100, 200-600mm lens at 600mm
A couple of days before leaving for Florida last winter, I received an issue of PSA Journal featuring Florida photography and listing best places! Marsh Trail proved to be so rewarding. After searching for spoonbills all week, we saw this one grooming for a full hour within camera distance. Difficult deciding which pose to submit this month. Lighting was harsh and lots of other waterfowl around. Nice lighting for the wings, but not so much for the face.
In Camera Raw, highlights all the way down; shadows all the way up; vibrance added and clarity subtracted; whites lowered and exposure reduced. In PhotoShop, cloned out waterfowl, lowered brightness on bill only with reverse mask, sharpened using high-pass filter.
This round’s discussion is now closed!
6 comments posted
Your crop highlights the bird and eliminates all the extra stuff that we don't need.
I have 2 suggestions. Lighten the eye and add a highlight, and saturate the pinks(red) a little deeper. Posted: 05/12/2023 13:31:22
I like the light highlighting the structure and feathers of the wings. It looks like you may have tried to clone out some of the vegetation - sometimes I find that the patch tool works well when the clone doesn't do so well. Posted: 05/14/2023 12:53:30
I love a backlit image. The exposure selection can be tricky but it looks adequate. Maybe applying a little less "shadow" selectively on the head and neck of the bird might help - but I am being picky. Posted: 05/17/2023 07:12:03