Blast Off

[Kurt Bowman]

American Widgeon taking off
Sony a9ii, 200-600mm, 1.4 TC
1/4000 at f/9 ISO 800
I lost a bit of detail in the whites on the top part of the wings, but I think its a frame worth keeping.
Thanks for looking

[David Roach]

Love the water action, pose, EXP, details and colors. Perhaps a CW rotation. TFS

[Jim Crosswell]

Great wing position and I like the dangling feet and water drops. I'm okay with the white patch, sometimes you can't have it all. Nice image Kurt.

[Brian Sump]

Kurt, this is a very nice frame of a Widgeon.

Love the wing position, forward and opened slightly toward the camera. The lighting helps it stand off nicely from the sweet blue water in back.

Details looks strong here. A couple suggestions you might consider; to remove the lower catchlight and perhaps a touch more canvas above.

Did you process in LR? Looks like a round of Denoise? I believe you might be able to reduce highlights a touch more, but surely you took a crack at that. Also, I might tend to brush down the denoise in blacks to the original layer as it can really darken and block them from texture and detail.

Overall you did great here, congrats!

[Joseph Przybyla]

Hi Kurt, nice image of a Widgeon taking flight. Wonderful blue background, just about a perfect wing position, nice detail on the bird. If mine I would explore toning down the whites for more detail, and opening up the blacks and dark tones for more detail. Thank you for sharing.

[Daniel Cadieux]

What a beautiful take-off pose, and great colours too. Perfect wing position. For sure I'd get rid of the lower catchlight. I almost get the feeling the face area could use a touch more sharpening, at least for web presentation. I'd too be happy with this frame!

[arash_hazeghi]

love the pose , this image can greatly benefit from the select rive sharpening of the head