Black bellied plover

[Ray Rozema]

Nikon D200 600 mm Tc 1.4
F 5.6 SS 1/2500
Aperture priority
0 EV ISO 320
Probably harsh light

Should there be more room on the bottom and LS and more crop on the top?
Does the BG work? Not the usual single color
The TIFF from which this was made was sharper. Can the loss of sharpness when converting to a JPEG be prevented?
PS The catchlight is natural.

Thanks for your suggestions.
Ray:)

[Lance Peters]

Hi Ray - like the pose - you have a good HA and a nice sharp eye with a catchlight - Have handled the exposure pretty well. IMHO the lighter area's in the BG do draw the eye. Id be tempted to crop a tad from the top.

What are you using to convert to JPG -- if P.S make sure you use Bicubic sharper when resizing.

Like it!!

[Gus Cobos]

Hi Ray,
I like the capture, image and the composition. You have a good head angle with a sharp eye and sharp feather details. The color rendition is very good. I too would slice a little from the top, to zero in all of the attention on this little guy.:cool:

[Alfred Forns]

Good looking image Ray. Agree with Lance on a little off the top, light doesn't look bad and got some good tones.

You will not have any problems downsizing the image. Check out Arties bulletin images .... all are 45 kb :) ours are 200 !!!! Would try some selective sharpening on the areas you need rather than on the entire image !!!

[Jackie Schuknecht]

Hi Ray, you did well for harsh light, echo Lance's comments about a crop and using bicubic sharper, I have found it does make a difference. Might have the bird smaller in frame if this was a crop.

[Jeff Cashdollar]

Agree with some selective sharpening on the body. I like this picture, just a tad soft IMO.

Sharpen again in final JPEG state. I use High-Pass and Smart Sharpening.

[Ray Rozema]

Thanks to everyone for taking the time to make suggestions

Ray