Plover Ripples

I’ve always loved photographing these Three-banded Plovers, such distinctive small birds with the striking red eye-ring and bill. The weather conditions this morning when we found this little chap were perfect to accentuate these features.

As photographers, we are obsessed by light, especially that golden light, however overcast weather provides great conditions to saturate the colours of birds. One of the key features of this picture is in the background - the milky water, proving that it’s not always about the subject but how the subject can be enhanced by the background.

We always talk about how to control and plan how your image will pan out but it’s often elements in the image that you don't plan that make it even more special. For me, it is the circular ripples at the Plover’s legs which create a different element. This element actually made me choose this particular image over another which was exactly the same, just without the ripples.

Equipment Used

• Camera - Nikon D4S
• Lens and Focal length - Nikkor 200-400mm F4 VRII @400mm

Settings used to capture this image

• ISO – 4000
• Aperture –f4
• Shutter – 1/2000

Editing used on this image

As always, I tried to imagine the image I wanted and get the settings right in camera first. I used the clarity slider in Lightroom to increase the intensity in the Plover’s eye. With the low light conditions, and needing to bump up the ISO as a result, I used the noise reduction slider which would also give the water in the background that milky effect. I also needed to crop the image as is often needed in bird photography unless you have super telephoto lens.

As you can see, very little processing was used and if you can understand the effects of your processing software, you can eliminate the time needed to do it later but also to be able to subtly enhance your final image.