American White Pelican

[Joseph Przybyla]

The White Pelicans have arrived at Lake Morton in Lakeland, 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
1/2500 F/5.6 Matrix Metering EV 0 ISO 4000 Auto 1 WB, image captured at 500mm (750mm 35mm Equivalent)
Post processed in Lightroom Classic and PS24
Captured in portrait, cropped slightly for composition and presentation.

[Colin Driscoll]

The portrait king has done it again! Lovely shot, although i may have lightened that dark BG patch above the head.

[Dorian Anderson]

The composition and details looks really good, and those are most of what you need for a great portrait. The yellow back cracks and looks great against the green. The tiny hair-like structures on the head and neck look bright and a bit crunchy, but
that could be my retina monitor (which I am still learning!). So, see if anyone else mentions that. Otherwise this is really nice!

[Jonathan Ashton]

Looks very nice to me lovely exposure. I am slightly concerned about the peripheral feathers, have to masked to sharpen and possibly not refined the edge???

[Sidharth Kodikal]

So very well exposed and composed. Lovely details in the whites.
I can see what Jon is saying about the mask potentially bleeding into the peripheral feathers.
Lovely portrait, Joe. TFS.

[Joseph Przybyla]

Thanks everyone for viewing and commenting. I read all of your comments, I think the feathers that are soft-focused are because of the shallow depth of field from being close and filling the frame with the bird. The depth of field is so shallow that even changing the aperture doesn't change much. The only way I have found to have all in focus with large birds like pelicans is to move back for more depth of field and then crop but then some of the fine details are lost. The background was not masked, only masks on the bird. Thanks again all...

[Jonathan Ashton]

That's the point I was making Jo, maybe the mask on the subject needs slight modification?

[Joseph Przybyla]

That's the point I was making Jo, maybe the mask on the subject needs slight modification?

Thanks for coming back and explaining, I will take a look at the mask on the subject and see what might be happening.

Be safe and well...