Roseate Spoonbill

[Arnold Dubin]

This photograph was taken at Gatorland in Orlando, Florida at 6:15PM. Below are my camera, lens, and camera settings.
Camera - Nikon D200
Lens - Nikon 70-200mmf2.8 VR
Setting -
ISO - 200
Speed - 1/2500 sec
F-stop - 4.0
I used PhotoShop CS3 to enhance the tonal range and sharpness.

I would appreciate critiques on this photo. Thanks ADubin

[Randy Stout]

Arnold:

A very nice juvie. Sharp, nicely exposed, good head angle and composition.

I would prefer it without the large snags in front of the bird, but thats where the bird was!

I might clone out the smaller one on the left, just to reduce the clutter a bit, but that is a matter of taste and editing ethics. I wouldn't mind a slightly lighter background, if you darkened it in post, or can bring it up. There is some green showing, and perhaps more to be had.

I personally find black backgrounds effective, but a lot of the folks do prefer some more color there.

Thanks for sharing.

Randy

[Daniel Cadieux]

Good points by Randy. I agree about the snags, but short of going back for a better perch not much can be done (especially about the hidden feet). I like the pose and light. Good exposure and sharpness. I like dark BGs but here you've got a few elements close to the face that distract a bit. I've taken the liberty to patch those out (clone would have been OK too as we're dealing with a solid clour with no texture) as well as some near the left edge and above the back. I've also performed a bit of eye doctor work to make the iris stand out more (dodged the iris at 8% opacity). Finally, I've eliminated the dark shadow on the perch with a combination of patch and clone tools. Thanks for posting, hoping to see more!

http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w98/dancad/001_090401_DSC0172-Edit201.jpg

[Randy Stout]

Daniel:

Nice work. I noticed quite a shift in the color in the repost. Was that your intention? The original looked much warmer in tone.

Randy

[Daniel Cadieux]

Randy, I didn't touch the colour in my repost and I don't see one from my monitor...perhaps the result of lost quality in resaving a low-res jpg?

[Axel Hildebrandt]

I like the repost, great details and the cleanup of the BG puts it up a notch.

[Randy Stout]

Daniel:

It really looks as if the compression desatted it. Interesting. I will have to watch for that when compressing for BPN.

Cheers

Randy

[Arnold Dubin]

I have reprocessed my photo based on the inputs I received from everyone. Please let me know what you think of it now. Thanks ADubin

[Randy Stout]

Arnold:

I prefer it over your original. I think you have gotten about all it has to give. The stump in front of the bird and the hidden feet are really the only issues for me now, and you can't do anything about that. Good work.

Randy

[Mike Godwin]

Nice job Arnold, it was a pleasure having you out to the park!

Mike Godwin
Gatorland

[Linda Robbins]

Arnold, the reposts improved your nice image of this juvenile Spoonie. Well done!

[Kim Rollins]

Arnold -

I like the image and your rework.

I have never seen one of these but would like to.

[Stu Bowie]

Lovely light, and super detail captured in this.

[Arnold Dubin]

I would like to thank everybody for their comments and the redo of my photo. I felt like they were very constructive and definitely help improved my image. Thanks again, ADubin