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Great Crested Grebe / Fuut (Podiceps cristatus)

I went to see the Grebe family again today. Now this shot is technically not a good shot in that the bird, head included, is turned away from us; we can barely see its face. So, normally, this would get trashed. But it's the only shot I have with this incredible water, so I decided that the pose of the bird be damned but I have to share this. Isn't that water gorgeous?!

Processing was difficult though. I wanted to keep the colours just as soft and pastel as they were, but as I usually expose to the right of the histogram they did need toning down a bit, but that changed the colours too much, so I struggled a bit there. Please let me know if you think the water is too bright and needs darkening a bit still. On my calibrated monitor it looks good now, but I've stared at it for too long and I can't tell any more! :)

Uncropped.

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4 comments

Jaap van 't Veen said:

Vooral de gekleurde reflecties in het water maken dit een mooi plaatje. Kan me voorstellen dat je er lang mee bezig bent geweest.
10 years ago ( translate )

Levina de Ruijter replied to Jaap van 't Veen:

Het probleem was om het juiste evenwicht te vinden tussen pasteltint en fletsheid. Ik denk dat het uiteindelijk wel gelukt is. Dank je wel, Jaap.
10 years ago ( translate )

Jim Boynton said:

I think the water is beautiful! The soft rippling works well with the pastel quality too. I only started post processing a short time ago so I can't really give a critique as to that. Quite often I'll spend ages working on a shot and end up just doing an automatic correction. Must find a less white subject to shoot...gulls can be a pain sometimes.
10 years ago

Levina de Ruijter replied to Jim Boynton:

Jim, in digital photography, processing your images is very important, I think. I spent a whole summer watching tutorials from lynda.com, starting with the basics then going into advanced. It was time well spent. And I'm still learning every day, picking up tricks as I go along. Of course it's equally important to get it right in camera as you cannot make a bad shot look good in Photoshop. But you can make a good shot really excellent in Photoshop.
10 years ago