Great creasted grebe (juv)

[Jonathan Ashton]

Camera Model Canon EOS-1D X
Shooting Mode Manual Exposure
Tv(Shutter Speed) 1/1600
Av(Aperture Value) 5.6
Metering Mode Evaluative Metering
Exposure Compensation +1/3
ISO Speed 800
Auto ISO Speed ON
Lens EF500mm f/4L IS USM +1.4x III
Focal Length 700.0mm

Image taken at a local surfing/sailing lake. All C&C welcome

[adrian dancy]

The composition is fine and the water looks good. The bird is nicely posed but I feel the plumage looks a little greyed out and the bill has a very flat/uniform look showing little form. There should be more variation in colour and shade IMHO. I can only assume that you have had blow out?

[stuart wanuck]

love the image looks like he just had a haircut agree to pop head a little

[Jonathan Ashton]

The composition is fine and the water looks good. The bird is nicely posed but I feel the plumage looks a little greyed out and the bill has a very flat/uniform look showing little form. There should be more variation in colour and shade IMHO. I can only assume that you have had blow out?
Whoops posted the wrong image this should have been the one!!

[adrian dancy]

Looks better and more natural:)

[David Cowling]

Nice composition, good feather detail and the eye shows up very nicely. On my monitor there appears to be a blown highlight patch at the top of the neck and a couple on the face which are not there on the OP.

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Jon , lovely details and overall tones in subject and water . Nice fine details and the comp works well .
I just think the very light patches in the plumage do look a bit hot , might be not , have you partially blown them in capture and then recovered ? But they might look like this ... never seen a crested Grebe .

Nice work , Jon

TFS

[Eric Dienesch]

Hello,

good work, nice and sharp, good light conditions.. the only thing i would say:
the position looks to be a little to high for me.. but perhaps nothing elso was possible ?

[Diane Miller]

A lovely shot except that the whites, especially on the neck, show the sharply defined edges that indicate they were blown out and attempted to be recovered without success. That probably accounts for what appear to be overly flat tones in the rest of the head, neck and bill. I would be interested to see if Adobe Camera Raw could do a better job.

[Jonathan Ashton]

The brightest were indeed blown a little (deliberately) to ensure there would be some detail in the darker plumage. I will have another go with DPP and ACR. Usually a slight overexposure 0.5 to 0.8 of a stop does not cause a problem but for some reason this image proved to be tricky.

[Andreas Liedmann]

Jon if not completely blown in all three channels ......double process might help :w3

[Jonathan Ashton]

Thanks again everyone, I have reprocessed several ways now including double process, I can get the matt structureless areas easily to a value of 232 but because there is no structure they always appears blown. If any one wants to have a try with the raw file I will be happy to send it via Maibigfile. This repost is double processed.

[Andreas Liedmann]

Just fire it to me ,i will have a play

[Andreas Liedmann]

Thanks Jon i had a quick look , you are right ...... no chance it stays somehow looking blown and flat . But actually it is not blown at all ??????
No need for RP from my side unless you want it ,that i do so .

Only good solution i found was just to edit the area with the " healing brush " and take some areas from above to heal the spot , and then lower the opacity to a certain degree until it does look natural .

Just my thought , Andreas

[Jonathan Ashton]

Thanks Jon i had a quick look , you are right ...... no chance it stays somehow looking blown and flat . But actually it is not blown at all ??????
No need for RP from my side unless you want it ,that i do so .

Only good solution i found was just to edit the area with the " healing brush " and take some areas from above to heal the spot , and then lower the opacity to a certain degree until it does look natural .

Just my thought , Andreas

Thanks Andreas, I have used that trick myself previously but for some reason it didn't occur to me this time.

[arash_hazeghi]

last one is good, one trick for highlights that are fully blown is to do a normal conversion and then a "linear" conversion in DPP. then put the normal files on top of the linear file in PS and gently erase out the blown areas with a 40% opacity brush....

sharp details and a nice head turn plus I like the water drops
TFS

[Jonathan Ashton]

last one is good, one trick for highlights that are fully blown is to do a normal conversion and then a "linear" conversion in DPP. then put the normal files on top of the linear file in PS and gently erase out the blown areas with a 40% opacity brush....

sharp details and a nice head turn plus I like the water drops
TFS

Thanks Arash, that is what I did though I used the brush progressively at 10% then again and again