I'm on a mission to capture a fabulous shot of a black skimmer. The female is easier to capture than the male since the male has that black around his black eye. HOW DO YOU CAPTURE A BLACK EYE WITH ALL THOSE BLACK FEATHERS/HAIR/WHATEVER-YOU-CALL-IT AROUND IT????
This was probably the best shot I got, focus-wise. Compositionally, the birds overlap, which is a no-no, I know, but focus is my focus right now (haha), so I had to post this one. Beyond the overlap, cropping was another issue. The line of disturbed water behind her beak needed to be in the shot, but in order to leave head-room in front of them, AND include that awesome reflection, the best I could come up with was the square crop. I'm not well-versed on the square crop or its purpose, so I don't really know if this works. Critique will be most appreciated!
@frankhymus Comments? Rather than try to edit the other black skimmer, I thought it might be more fruitful to go back out and work on getting the shot better in camera. Still not tack sharp, but definitely sharper than the other shot. Also, my on-going focus problems prompted me to do a little research, and I have some ideas on how to possibly make my next try a little more successful. Hopefully. :-)
I think you did magnificently on the black eyes. If you wanted to brighten them, you could make copy of layer in PS using screen blend mode. Then make a mask and invert so it is all black. Then paint in just the eyes with white brush. Adjust the opacity of layer as needed. Re the crop. I think the square crop works fine but I might add some ( if you have it) in fron to have a bit more of the graceful grass and not have the birds so centered
@shesnapped This far away, i assume you are with a 340mm focal length, the eye would be impossible for any AF system to lock on, so you need a bigger target that would include the eye.. Especially if you are using any form of tracking auto focus. And I have no first hand experience with the vagaries of Canon's auto focus system. What lens are you using at this length?
Wonderful capture. My sister says you are supposed to catch a glint or light reflection in the eye. You will see many of mine don't have that. So according to her I shouldn't post. I think you did a wonderful job here.
