Red-capped Plover (Charadrius ruficapillus)

[Mark Young]

Taken yesterday at one of my favourite sites up at Newcastle for shorebirds.
I'm not very familiar with these birds as we dont get them at home, but according to my guide this bird is an adult male.

Canon 400, 300mm L F4 + 1.4tc, ISO 200, f7.1, 1/400, evaluative metering, tripod.
PP: Cropped approx 30%, cwr 2*, nr and blur on bg, levels and SH and curves adjust. Selective usm. Small rock cloned from fg.

In the RAW image, the white throat was overexposed and I had to selectively fix that by adjusting the S@H and midtone contrasts.

All C and C welcomed.

http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj177/MTY400/Birds/Birds%20of%20Australia/Uploaded%20Images/Red-cappedPlover800IMG_0042.jpg

[Bill Dix]

I love all the little plovers, and this is one I didn't know about; a pretty bird indeed. You did a good job on recovering the exposure of the whites. Blurred bg is lovely; I might smooth out the light bokeh above the bird's back. Were it mine I might consider cropping a bit more -- some off the bottom and some off the right, just to the point of eliminating the dark oof spot, maintaining the original proportions.

[Dave Mills]

Hi Mark, Good suggestions by Bill. I agree that you have good detail in both dark and light areas.Good low angle with a nicely muted backround.I would also take some off the right and bottom and some off the top. Nothing major just to tighten it up a bit.
Wonderful specimen!

[Lance Peters]

Hi Mark - good show - nice PP work to recover the whites - agree with the above suggestions.
I am wondering if it just needs a touch of CW rotation??

[Mark Young]

Thanks everyone for the suggestions.

Repost with suggestions.

http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj177/MTY400/Birds/Birds%20of%20Australia/Uploaded%20Images/Red-cappedPlover800RepostIMG_0042.jpg

[Bill Dix]

Beautiful. Improvement to an already lovely image.

[Dave Mills]

Good job Mark