Drying at first light...

[David Roach]

EOS R EF400 DO I 1.4xtc f5.6 1/640 ISO 1250

This was created about a month after nesting season at anhinga trail in ENP just as the sun came over the trees. This beauty had just caught a huge breakfast in the twilight and was drying/digesting in the first light. The breeding colors gone and the plumage now worn, still beautiful in the morning light. I know, terrible perch, but I stepped slightly off the sun angle to get parallel to the face and saw this BG. Couldn't resist. Looking forward to your helpful comments, suggestions and critiques.

ps
In my last post, Daniel correctly mentioned the resizing takes away the tack sharp look sometimes. I post (and sharpen) largest side at 1600 so the details can be critiqued. I notice on my 4k monitor it gets resized to about 150%. If I post at the biggest allowed(I forget, is it 1920) will it actually post at 100% as intended?

[Randy Stout]

David:

Nice light, background, exposure.

Perch is not ideal, but I would have taken the shot as well. The bird is angled away from us a bit. I suspect your lens and TC combo isn't quite razor sharp at this f/stop.

The maximum posting size is 1920 on the longest side of the image. This image actually measured 1600 by 1509 when I copied it off the site. I generally find that 1600 is big enough for this site.

I will occ. get an image that looks great on my monitor, and despite doing everything right, it doesn't post quite as sharp as the original.

Randy

[John Mack]

Nice pose and the background is great. The perch is what it is. Looks nice and sharp to my eyes.

[Jonathan Ashton]

I like the image, the bird has a very elegant pose, the head shows good detail, the darker plumage in the body could perhaps show a little more detail (?) I think you have a colour cast, to me it seems especially prevalent on the bench.

[David Roach]

I like the image, the bird has a very elegant pose, the head shows good detail, the darker plumage in the body could perhaps show a little more detail (?) I think you have a colour cast, to me it seems especially prevalent on the bench.

Hi Jonathon and thanks as always for your valued input. As I am partially color blind I many times don't see color casts. In this image, the railing post and beam are wood but the rail (part bird is standing on) is recycled plastic. May be what you are seeing but can't be sure. Thanks again to all for valued inputs.

[gail bisson]

You have a very strong purple cast in this image. No doubt about it. Mostly seen on that (not very nice) perch and on the tail.
BG is great. Perhaps there is a nicer perch in this area that you could stake out?
Gail

[Joseph Przybyla]

Hey David, nice looking Anhinga, love the spread wings. I had a go at editing your image. There was a blue color cast so in Lightroom I desaturated the blue 100%. My guess is this might have been in shadows where there is a lot of blue light. If not that I would check the White Balance if you use Auto WB. I cropped the image to eliminate the perch/railing. I also cropped the image using 2x3 and posted at 1900 pixels wide. Thank you for sharing.

[David Roach]

Hey David, nice looking Anhinga, love the spread wings. I had a go at editing your image. There was a blue color cast so in Lightroom I desaturated the blue 100%. My guess is this might have been in shadows where there is a lot of blue light. If not that I would check the White Balance if you use Auto WB. I cropped the image to eliminate the perch/railing. I also cropped the image using 2x3 and posted at 1900 pixels wide. Thank you for sharing.

Thanks for the inputs, Joe. AWB is always set on my rig and this was taken in first morning light(as can be seen in the shadow and catch light) which is heavily filtered through the atmosphere and a very light fog(probably what caused the cast). I also miss that beautiful tail. Thanks for your suggestions and repost but the original looks more like what I saw (again I am not a color cast expert as I can not see all frequencies). Keep the comments and suggestions coming.