European Golden Plover

[gail bisson]

Iceland, July 2019
ISO 1250 SS 1/2500 F 7.1
Crop to 70% FF
Cloned out a small narrow blade of grass that intersected with rock only.
Comments and critiques always learned from and appreciated with thanks,
Gail

[Aditya Sridhar]

Sweet shot Gail! Love this species. The light and the HA are great. The BG is really nice too. I would clone/burn the brightest patch of white on the rock though as it draws my eye away from the bird. More sharpening would also help this image I think as it doesn't appear as sharp on my screen as the RAW file probably is. That said, I'd be thrilled to have this shot! :bg3:

[gail bisson]

Thanks Aditya, I increased the sharpening. What do you think?

[Moe Richard]

Excellent color and detail on this plover. I really like the way the moss on the rock mirrors some of the plumage on the bird. Nice use of diagonals. Excellent background. Nice that you got to see one under clear Icelandic skies.

[Aditya Sridhar]

The repost looks great, Gail!

[John Mack]

Nice pose and in nice light. Like the moss covered rock perch. Background is nice as well.

[dankearl]

The light and the BG are excellent...
I think a tighter crop all around would look good, a bit too much above for me.

[Tim Foltz]

Gail sweet shot of this beautiful little shore bird, great colors, pose and angle.

-Tim

[greg cowle]

The bird really pops in that light and against that background, very nice.

[Paul Burdett]

Nice one Gail. Love the colours and detail. Repost is an improvement. The bird looks a little over saturated on my monitor. Looks like you do a lot of travel...Australia and Iceland! Cheers.

[arash_hazeghi]

I like the display of the environment (I'd clone out the white wash) nice HA and light, sharpness is good in the repost. Are the whites supposed to be white or yellowish as posted ?

TFS

[gail bisson]

Thanks all for the feedback.
Arash- image was taken in glorious golden light (around 10:00PM) so the feathers look yellowish and the gold really did look gold. I decided to leave as is.
Paul- I just checked and I only bumped saturation up by +2 in LR. I think it was that golden light that lit everything up.
The white on the rock is a type of moss, not whitewash, so that is why I left it in.
Gail

[Joseph Przybyla]

Hi Gail, beautiful bird, nicely shown. Love the rock, and background. I go back and forth regarding the yellow of the whites. Thank you for sharing.

[Mike Poole]

One of my favourite upland birds - stunning in this plumage, and you've done it full justice with the light and the shooting angle. RP is a slight but worthwhile improvement.

I understand your feeling on the white area directly below the feet, but I find it difficult to establish it as moss and find it distracting, so for me I'd have the clone tool out.

Great light, I'd love this one in my files

Mike

[Krishna Prasad kotti]

Painterly looking background make this image really nice.

Rock is really good. I would clone of the white stuff.

TFS

[Bill Dix]

What gorgeous Icelandic light, and a killer of a pose. Not to mention the lovely BG. And I like the crop as is. As long as you were cloning out a bit of grass, I would have taken out the white blob too. As Mike said, it's hard to identify it as moss.

[William Dickson]

Beautiful looking frame with lovely light. Detail looks good, as does the perch and BG...Nice one Gail

Will