Osprey incoming

[Paul Burdett]

This Osprey likes to perch on a pole at the end of the pier. The fishermen there often drop a fish on the ground (which I dislike, as i'd prefer the Osprey to hunt normally...diving into the sea). In any case this Osprey grabbed the fish and flew off to a wooden pylon some distance away. Eventually it flew back towards me. Not the best sun angle, but I was able to fire off a number of shots.

D500, 500PF, 1/3200th sec, f5.6, iso 640, manual mode, HH. Cheers.

[David Roach]

Hi Paul, Love the crop, pose and those eyes. Yes, light is holding this back but I love the details. TFS

[John Mack]

Works very well with the bird centered. Most people will say the side light kills this. But hey I don't mind. It gives some nice depth. The dark background is nice.

[Paul Burdett]

Thanks so much David & John. An hour or so later would have given me better light (sunset around 5.30pm) but the Osprey stayed put on the pole at that time. Always next time! Cheers.

[Brian Sump]

An intense glare and details to spare. And a rhyme apparently.

I wonder if reducing blues in the shadows might help at all Paul.

Great job exercising your new gear!

[Paul Burdett]

Hi Brian...You may not know it, but you are a poet...lol
Thanks for the feedback...will check out your suggestion. Cheers.

[David Seymour]

Hi Paul,

Despite the lighting I think there's some scope for improving the look of this one with some shadow enhancement. Below is a quick experiment I did by applying Photoshop's Shadow/Highlight adjustment at default settings (which only adjusts the shadows). What do you reckon?
Cheers, David

187930

[Paul Burdett]

Hi David. Thanks so much for your edit. When I was editing this image I arrived at a similar stage to your edit, but decided to use a luminosity mask to reduce the highlights, as they looked a little blown out to me...the whites were almost 255. However, I may have reduced the whites a little too much, as your edit looks pretty good to me, but I still feel the highlights are a little too high above the Osprey's head and between the eyes. Perhaps a setting somewhere in the middle would be best. Thanks again David.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Wonderful head-on flight pose!! Nice and sharp. For the repost I kept the exposure as is, but added lots of reds and a bit of yellows to the subject, as well as reduced the cyans in hue-saturation. All to taste, but of course could be better, and onl offered as an option. I just felt the OP had too much of a blue cast.

[Paul Burdett]

HI Daniel...looks good! Thanks so much...might go back to the raw file myself and "have a play". Cheers.