Turnstone at Scarborough (1 Viewer)

A couple of months ago I moved over to digital and I submit this image of a Turnstone on the beach adjacent to the Lifeboat slipway at Scarborough.

Exposure details ISO 200, 1/2500 at f5.6.

I've not manipulated it other than unsharp mask in Photoshop Elements 2,
your constructive critique would be welcome.
Digital is completely new to me if I,ve not attached the file correctly I,m sorry, fingers crossed.

Thanks,

Dave

Dave Adshead said:

A couple of months ago I moved over to digital and I submit this image of a Turnstone on the beach adjacent to the Lifeboat slipway at Scarborough.

Exposure details ISO 200, 1/2500 at f5.6.

I've not manipulated it other than unsharp mask in Photoshop Elements 2,
your constructive critique would be welcome.
Digital is completely new to me if I,ve not attached the file correctly I,m sorry, fingers crossed.

Thanks,

Dave

Click to expand...

My experience is in general photography rather than birds, but I wonder if you were using automatic exposure? The background looks well exposed but the bird itself is a little under-exposed I would say if we're being critical. This tends to happen when shooting against the light with that sort of background.

I guess the answer would be to open up a stop, which would bring out the colours and markings on the bird but slightly burn out everything else, so reducing the pictorial effect of the shot. It's a delicate balance.

Hi Dave,
A very nice silhouette and a sharp, frozen action. I like the effect of the underexposed bird and the trails in the water. You could even emphasize this by leaving out a couple of cm's from the right and top. I think you could play with PS Elements and try to brighten just the turnstone and also to make it a completely black silhouette. These could work for different purposes - and this is just the fun of the digital. :t:

Ilkka

Like very much. Wonder whether a full reflection would have made better or worse?
Re. post processing, 'cos you've got one of them fancy cameras with RAW |:$| I expect there is a fair bit of detail in the bird if you want to use it. Tried Ilkka's suggestion to emphasise the silhouette; did crop as suggested and ran the free Photoshop plugin "VirtualPhotographer" from http://www.optikvervelabs.com/ Played with the various options adding grain, tinting etc etc. Here’s the "Hollywood" B&W effect on it :

Hi,

Thanks for your comments, I'll have a look at this in the RAW mode and try your suggestions. I do like the crop.

Best wishes

Dave