lil blue in morning light

[annmpacheco]

I just love walking out on the beach as the sun comes up and hunting for who will be there in that pretty light. This lil blue had just finished eating a puffer fish and was moving down the shoreline.
DPP, levels, removed second catchlight, NR

1Dx
840mm
ISO 1250
6.3
1/2000

[Bill Dix]

Hi Ann. Lovely flight shot. Good flight pose and angle, and I like the drop of water off the toe. And the layered BG. The color looks a bit odd to me, but maybe that is what it was like just before sunrise. Just for fun I tried a dose of Auto Tone at 30%, that gave it a little pop. Don't know if it is more realistic or not, but you might consider it.

[kevin Hice]

Ann, another great shot. Colors nice and soft. Just love it like most of your photos.

[John Mack]

Great flight shot of this little blue. Nice pose,background and detail. Good all around.

[Daniel Cadieux]

This is beautiful! I can;t really comment on the overall colour, but I do think the image could use 3-4 points more saturation. I love the pose, BG, sharpness on the face. Great job.

[gail bisson]

Lovely flight pose and love the BG. Water drops add a lot.
I agree with Bill that the colors seem off a little bit.
I would play with selective color a bit and add a bit of black,
Gail

[David Salem]

Beautiful flight frame Ann and the subject is bathed if that sweet light too. Yes to a bit more blacks and saturation. Good job on removing the second catch. This is one where I would add a bit more sharpening to the head also as the wings and legs are a little bit sharper. Well done

[Isaac Grant]

This is really elegant and pretty Ann. Beautiful soft light and details. Killer background. I agree that you need to deepen the colors just a touch. Could add blacks, reduce mid tones, do a curves adjustment, use selective color. Many options will have about the same results. I think what will have a bigger impact is to increase the exposure a touch and warm up the image a bit. As presented you have a blue cast to your shot. Did a quick redo to warm it up and correct the color cast. Just did global adjustments to give an idea of where I think the image should go. I also sharpened the head a bit more. You have a real winner here Ann and I would suggest going back and reprocessing this one to make it sing a bit more.