Laughing Kookaburra

[Colin Driscoll]

Flying up from the backyard water bath, soaking wet.
Canon EOS R5 100-500 @ 167mm
1/6400 f5.6 iso2000 manual exp
ACR PS2024 subdued some BG highlights

[Jonathan Ashton]

Well caught - I like it, a good pose. The background is just a little busy you could try other possibly aditional negative Clarity ond or Texture and or Sharpness.

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Colin a real " killer shot " from the action POV .... very cool that you managed get that in the frame .
Just the BG kills it for me as presented , as the subject does get lost in that tonal " disaster " .... a real shame IMHO.
Would agree with Jon to work with the BG , just skip the " texture " suggestion as the texture is only HF you need to address the low frequency range for the most part . Try to make it equally as possible from the tonal / color POV and you might be able to create a more smoother BG

Brilliant work and TFS Andreas

[Colin Driscoll]

Thanks, I am always conflicted between representing the scene and improving on that.
Gaussian blur to BG and reduced exposure while protecting most of the water droplets.

[Andreas Liedmann]

The RP is an improvement ... and I would agree about the conflict :bg3:.
Over the time I got away from processing my images " as shot " ... like most folks do who " publish " their work .

TFS Andreas