Roseate Spoonbill

[Joseph Przybyla]

I captured this image at a stop along Blackpoint Wildlife Drive in Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge on Merritt Island, Florida. Comments and critique welcomed and appreciated. Thank you for viewing.

Nikon D500
Nikon 500mm PF, camera and lens supported by a Oben carbon fiber monopod with a Wimberly MonoGimbal head
1/3200 F/5.6 Matrix Metering EV +1 ISO 8000 Auto 1 WB, image captured at 500mm (750mm 35mm Equivalent)
Post processed in Lightroom Classic, Photoshop CC 2022 and Topaz Denoise AI, removed a few white stripes/reflections in the background
Cropped for composition and presentation

[Dorian Anderson]

Lovely bird! Colors and details are excellent, and the open beak adds interest. That head is so funky looking. Technically I think this image is all there, but the composition gives me pause because the large pink ripples kinda overpower the subject. I either try to get close and low enough to lose the reflection or back off so as to get the whole thing. Irrespective of the ripple issue, I think you're caught between two close and two far. Curious what others will think!

[Jonathan Ashton]

I think it looks great, my eyes are drawn to the subject, they make a cursory view of the reflection but its all about the subject - and it looks great. Colours and details are all there. Maybe an image with the bill leaving the water with droplets falling would have been good - but I am sure you would have posted one if you had one.

[Paul Burdett]

Agree with the positives here. If it were mine I'd lose a bit off the bottom...about 50% of the reflection. I just love these birds...stunning colours, sharp throughout and fantastic feather detail. TFS

[Kurt Bowman]

Love the deep pinks in this and detail looks great! I am fine with the crop as is. I think you left room for the "virtual feet". I think you can afford to loos a smidge offf the bottom, but really anything more than that crop might look a bit wonky in my opinion.

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Joe ... looks good overall to me . I do like the overall contrasting colors the most of this image .
Nice details and sharpness .... and glad to see you pushing the ISO and create a sharp image , albeit your software ( or you ) has missed a part on the wing :w3. or some sort of sharpening thing like detail / texture ....
If this was mine I would raise the exposure / brightness in the darker tones ...

TFS Andreas

[Joseph Przybyla]

Hi Joe ... looks good overall to me . I do like the overall contrasting colors the most of this image .
Nice details and sharpness .... and glad to see you pushing the ISO and create a sharp image , albeit your software ( or you ) has missed a part on the wing :w3. or some sort of sharpening thing like detail / texture ....
If this was mine I would raise the exposure / brightness in the darker tones ...

TFS Andreas

Hi Andreas, you see what I miss. I need to learn to examine the images more closely. Here is a post with noise reduction by Topaz on the left pane and with Neat Image in the right pane. The difference in the area on the wing is obvious although I think the noise reduction in the background is better with Topaz. Now I have to discover why that area was so different than the other feathers. Topaz appears to have missed applying noise reduction to that area and sharpening the image sharpened the noise making it worse. I shall work on a solution.

[Joseph Przybyla]

Hi Andreas, I think I fixed it. WDYT?

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Andreas, you see what I miss. I need to learn to examine the images more closely. Here is a post with noise reduction by Topaz on the left pane and with Neat Image in the right pane. The difference in the area on the wing is obvious although I think the noise reduction in the background is better with Topaz. Now I have to discover why that area was so different than the other feathers. Topaz appears to have missed applying noise reduction to that area and sharpening the image sharpened the noise making it worse. I shall work on a solution.

Interesting why and what misses the area in Topaz .... you know I am not a fan of this AI thingie . Tried it again and again with various updates in both Sharpen and Denoise Ai ..... never feel satisfied . Just tried sharpen ai the other day .... gave me strange results with the strange local results like you here ???!!!

Looking at your Neat Image result I would be not happy , to be honest . Would be interested how you use Neat Image !!! As I get very pleasing results with it !!! But I do tweak the values of Neat Image ....

Cheers Andreas

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Andreas, I think I fixed it. WDYT?

Looks better for sure as the area that bothered me is not visible , so what have you changed ??

Cheers Andreas

[Joseph Przybyla]

Thanks everyone for viewing and commenting, much appreciated.