New day at a Bosque del Apache wetland, revised

Very early dawn. The color is from the sunrise reflecting off the clouds

and perhaps a slight underexposure (i.e., no saturation was added). The

photo was taken for the beauty and tranquility of the place, and for the

experience of being there to witness it. Comments and suggestions are

appreciated. Thanks.

Very nice shot.

It looks a little flat to me. I think if you adjusted the levels and contrast to make the light coming from left, that is hitting the birds, more prominent this image would really pop! The colors are beautiful in there but just a little muted right now.

-keith

I think this probably represents a true likeness of what you witnessed, and for me the authentic low light and colours are exactly the key elements of what makes it so attractive. Minimal photoshop interference is always another preferred quality if the image can stand alone unaltered. I believe this one does just that. The relatively shallow dof and compressed layers are courtesy of the open aperture and long focal length, was this a conscience decision to achieve this effect? Personally I think maybe a greater dof would have worked also, but thats not taking anything away from this one. It's a beautiful photograph.

Best Regards

Alf

Thanks for the comments.  Keith, it is a bit flat, but as Alf said, this is really a true representation -- the light was quite diffuse and non-directional.  I could increase the contrast, but I'd rather not; the flat softness if fine with me. Regarding DOF, I would have liked more, but I'm not yet comfortable with high ISO numbers, and slow shutter speeds on long lenses can be a problem with movement of the birds and vibrations.  I just don't know of a good way around that.

I like the muted colors, and if that is what you remember then so be it.  I think the line of birds is reinforced by the linear landscape in the background.  I agree however that the out of focus mountains are distracting in my humble opinion.  I would try the high iso's - I was on a trip recently and shot a lot at duck with iso's of 1600 - 6400.  With some ordinary noise reduction post capture they look very good.  Just a thought.

John, thanks for the suggestion.  I've never shot above ISO 400 until this trip, and 800 a few days ago has proven to be fine.  I simply need to experiment some more in order to make the most of these opportunities.

I personally love the soft contrast and diffused light. It creates a peaceful stillness that really compliments the birds. The limited plane of focus creates a three dimensional scene very well for me. Beautiful!

Thanks, Tim.  I did try ISO 1600 this evening, but the jury is still out.  I think I can make it work -- hopefully another tool in the box.

I like this too. It does seem to lack the "pop" some people talk about though. Have you ever heard of the "polishing step". I copied this image and opened it in PS and did the polishing step to see what would happen and I think it adds the pop. It can be too much on some images but I think it works well on this one. Sometimes I do it as the very last step after your final sharpening for the web. All it is is Unsharp Mask with an amount of 10, radius 20, and threshold 0. Those are the settings for a smaller image like this one. I did it 3 times on this image and it added more contrast and put a shine on the water without changing the tone or the diffused look. Try it and see what you think. Fred

Fred, thanks for the suggestion -- I will give it a try.

Stephen, I would not change a thing. The atmosphere of the early morning is there, and the birds are tack sharp, dominating the composition, yet the rest is enough to place them in context of the beautiful surrounding nature. I would not go for a larger depth-of-field.

Being there ones, I can imagine  the  light  in the very early morning, with those clouds. Very nice  image.

Cheers.

Bela

lovley image very well done.

I've finally gotten around to revising this photo, but the new version hasn't yet made its way through the system (as of 11/21 a.m.).  I did a severe crop that removed the OOF mountains completely, and then used Nik Color Efex 4 to give the photo a bit more "pop" that folks had suggested.  The original is attached.  The new version should show up in a day or so.

And it finally came through.  The processing was different (Nik Color Efex Pro 4 "Glamor Glow" and slightly darker with some vignetting).  If I just look at the photo without comparing it to anything else, it does convey the look and feel I was experiencing at that very early hour.

This one had the same trouble as the image taken with the Hasselblad.  Just FYI.  Don't know why.  I'll try some others.

Stephen, I know you are always critical of your work but to me this is very beautiful! I love the color and light. I also like that you have attached the original which I would love to see submitted also, not just as an added comment because it is quite beautiful too! Very well done! Thank you for sharing. :)

Trisha, I did submit the original, but I removed it when the revision was posted. I do this just to try to keep the number of photos in my portfolio down.  But I also like for viewers to be able to see the difference between the revised version and the original.