Spur-winged goose portrait

[Tobie Schalkwyk]

I don't recall having seen one of these birds here recently so let me add one of my own.

I would have preferred seeing the feet as well but this is all opportunity it gave me before turning around and walking off to the other side of the dune.

Darks lightened a little at the back with LM's in PS. Other than that standard sharpness & shadows adjustments in LR.

Nikon D600
Nikon AF-S 300mm f4 + TC14EII
f/6.3 | 1/800s | 1000 ISO | Handheld

All C & C's welcome

[MiroslavMaric]

Hi Tobie! Like the details, pose of the bird and green section of the BG. Wish a little bit more mid-tone contrast on the bird and white BG at the top could be in brown tone too. TFS. Cheers! Miro

[David Salem]

Nice looking pose and I like the feather detail in this. The image looks washed out overall and I agree with Miro that a boost in contrast and possibly saturation will bring this nice frame back to life.
I would also tone down the whites in the BG too. Nice work

[Binu John]

Beautiful shot! I like the pose and HA. +1 for boosting the contrast!

[Tobie Schalkwyk]

Thanks for the comments everyone! Just as background: the goose is standing on a pure almost-white sand dune (which also forms the background) against a gloomy-doomy-rainy-grey sky which implies that I've already done close to as much as I could with the whites and colors. If I remember correctly I've already up'd the saturation & contrasts a little but I'll have a relook at it. Thanks again! :S3:

[Shawn Zierman]

Wow, that is quite a mix of features all put into one goose! Perfect head angle...nicely composed image, especially with the lay of the land in the background....It's probably true to light as it were...but one consideration would be to boost the blacks prior to RAW conversion...just for a little more punch...Is the "spur" visible in this image?

[Tobie Schalkwyk]

Wow, that is quite a mix of features all put into one goose! Perfect head angle...nicely composed image, especially with the lay of the land in the background....It's probably true to light as it were...but one consideration would be to boost the blacks prior to RAW conversion...just for a little more punch...Is the "spur" visible in this image?

Thanks for commenting Shawn! Those wings are folded away so nicely I can't see any spur.

[Tobie Schalkwyk]

Midtones adjusted and I must say - I love it! I left saturation alone as the slightest adjustment immediately caused a yellow cast on the plant life.

http://www.birdphotographers.net/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=143346&d=1406647158

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Tobie, super look back pose from the Spurwing, and before reading the other comments, I thought additional contrast would work, and your repost shows up nicely. Love the iridescence on the wing.

[Tobie Schalkwyk]

Hi Tobie, super look back pose from the Spurwing, and before reading the other comments, I thought additional contrast would work, and your repost shows up nicely. Love the iridescence on the wing.

Stu, contrast raised from 0 to +30 here and and works for me. I actually did not really see the iridescence before adjusting the midtones - yep, quite nice!

http://www.birdphotographers.net/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=143346&d=1406647158