Osprey on the beach
by Jeff Lewis
Osprey posing on the beach on Sanibel Island last summer.
D7000, Sigma 150-500 @ 500mm
1/400, f8, ISO 200
45% of FF, handheld
I was sitting on the beach with the kids when a couple of the various Osprey that work their way up and down the coast landed in the surf 30-40 yds away. They spent some time there, so I got various shots of them, with the bonus of there being a high haze, so plenty of light but diffuse with no harsh shadows. I like this one because of the swell of greenish Gulf water as the background.
Minimal processing in LR4, just white balance, exposure and contrast adjustments, but no sharpening or NR, then in PS used Andreas Resch's web sharpener v0.8 to resize and sharpen. That's a great tool for a PS novice, as it generates various PS sharpening layers and you can adjust their strength and/or mask them further before output. I actually masked out all sharpening on the eye and surrounding ring of feathers, as that area seemed oversharp when the rest of the image seemed good. Please let me know if you think I should add back in some sharpening there.
All C&C welcome. I'm particularly interested in cropping thoughts. This crop is at the bottom of the frame, but I have lots of room left, right and top and just don't have a strong feel what I should do. I opted for adding space in the direction it was looking to somewhat decenter, instead of in front, but I'm not sure it works.
Thanks.
Comments
10 commentsLooks good as is, love the light and the detail you managed.
Well Done,
Great techs, comp, and look back pose.. The birds eye is very striking up close like this as well
The light really worked in your favour on this one allowing good detail on white and dark feathers.
The crop works fine for me.
Max