Q: Getting water to look like water.

[enduro]

I took these images of a Buff Banded Rail in the last hour of light. The sun was low, the sky was a clear and from memory the water was more silver than blue. I used no filter on the lens, and selected Auto White Balance. I’m wondering why the water in my bird shots turns out so blue and not the silvery I would like it to be.

Below is an image I PP’d a little while ago and a link to the cropped unedited JPG image [600Kb]. The linked imaged has only had an exposure correction and not other adjustments in the RAW editor.

If anyone could provide some hints and tips to improve the image I would be very appreciative.

Canon 40D + 400mmL f/5.6
Exposure Time 1/1250s
F-Stop F6.3
Exposure Program = manual control
ISO Speed Ratings = 250

Link:
http://members.iinet.net.au/~damask/Wayne/Photo/forum/canon/IMG_8723_unedited.jpg

[ricktas]

Are the bird's colours rendering accurately Wayne. Sorry, I haven't seen one of these in real life, so wondering if a WB adjustment would work.

You could also do selection of everything but the bird and desaturate it all a bit?

[Tannin]

Bird's colours are pretty right, Rick, maybe the tiniest bit warm and bright. Your selective WB idea sounds like a good one. Overall, though, I'm puzzled by this challenge.

[enduro]

Overall, though, I'm puzzled by this challenge.

Tell us: how is that so?

[Tannin]

Well, essentially, Wayne, I want to make a pretty major adjustment to the WB, reducing the blue till it's not blue anymore. But I don't want to change the WB of the bird, because that is about right as-is.

Secondly, when you do as Arthur has done to get that silvery look to the water, it is a bit overwhelming brightness-wise. Unpleasant, really. But if you compensate for that by dropping the levels, then it winds up grey, not silver. ....... So I dunno where to take it from here.

[arthurking83]

I think to get a more white looking(silvery) water surface you may have to adjust the magenta/green 'TINT'(that's what Nikon calls it, but it used to be called 'HUE') as well as the blue yellow/red warmth.
There seems to be a little green as well as blue in the water.
That's why I used the white point dropper in this case, as you wanted silvery water.

I normally don't play with the white/grey/black point tool in NX (in fact this is only the second time I've tried it).

After using the white point tool, as Tony said the image was way overblown in brightness and I compensated with a small amount of brightness.Ttoo much darkening lost to much detail in the bird.
With more experimentation you could get it to look right. Mine was only a two click process.

[arthurking83]

I 'played with WB a little.. but of course it's a jpg and as I use CaptureNX, it's really an innappropriate program for manipulating jpgs in a intricate manner.

But all I did was to set the White Point and Grey Point.

Not exactly sure what the scene looked like in real life, but if you play with it a little more you may find a WB setting that works as you prefer.

[enduro]

Here is a copy of an image I took of the same species on an isolated island about 50km away. The bird in the original post had a duller plumage, potentially because it was out of breeding or has a limited gene pool.