Angry Birds #1

[gail bisson]

Took this in Florida last April.
Dowitchers ( I think short-billed but I am never 100% sure!)
Canon 1DX 600mm
ISO 800 SS 1/2500 F 8.0
Taken around 6:00PM.
PP: Cropped to ~70% FF, processed in DPP4. I increased brightness by .25, increased the shadows by 1 and boosted saturation by .4. Then NR as per Arash's e-book instructions. Off to CS5 for a tweak of levels and DE at 1% to birds only.I cloned out an extra catchlight in the left hand bird.
USM to JPEG
I am not crazy about the way the green in the BG intersects on a diagonal line with the brown and I thought about cloning in some green on the RHS to "level" the merge between the 2 colors. Thoughts?
Comments and critiques are always appreciated and learned from with thanks,
Gail

[Satish Ranadive]

Sure Gail, he does look like very angry and aggressive. Fully action packed image with nice colours in the frame.
I like the low shooting angle, nice water droplets, flowing water from bill blurred tips indicating action and composition. Rest as usual superb.
Great eye contacts.

Regards,
Satish.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Gail, action shots always raise the points on an image, and here as per your title, the action is certainly there. Good low perspective captured here. I like the raised foot of the aggressor, extended wings, and the water trailing from the birds bill in front having just exited from the water. Flying droplets always adds to the action, and I do like those unusual colours to the far BG.

[Ian Wilson]

Background green-brown merge looks fine to me Gail but fine-grain noise is just visible in the darker parts. For 70% FF I would expect a little sharper and less noise. Regards, Ian.

[Bill Dix]

Very nice action captured. I like the raised wings, water spray. Background colors are nice and I don't mind the slight angle of merge. Good low POV and detail. I'm not seeing any disturbing noise on the birds; maybe a tiny bit in the BG, but you wouldn't want to blur out the water drops. I also have trouble with SB/LB. Given the amount of orange color you might make an argument for LB but I'm no expert.

[Daniel Cadieux]

I love the interaction, and I'm really digging the bill swooshing across the water. Although I understand your concern about the BG I do not find it objectionable and would leave it as is.

[keith mitchell]

Gail I wondered if it was anger or love, anyway it got you some great action, love the way the front one looks to be pulling up the water with it's bill.

Keith.

[arash_hazeghi]

very nice interaction and behavior here, nice light too. great details and sharpness, I don't see any noise. I think the BG isn't that bad since the transition is somewhat gradual.

TFS

[Karl Egressy]

Excellent interaction well captured here, Gail. Part of the background nicely compliment the colors of the birds.

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

I'd leave the BG as is.
Excellent interaction you got here Gail! great work!

[Marina Scarr]

I just remembered where you photographed this. These are long-billed dowitchers. The long-billed are found more inland, and the short-billed are found in more coastal areas such as FD. These birds sure had some amazing battles and you did a great job capturing it with your sequence.