Great Crested Grebes

[Austin Thomas]

Hi all,

I am not sure that this image is sharp enough and would appreciate your feedback. This is quite a crop and was taken with a 500mm plus 1.4x converter attached, so the subjects were some way away. I have spent some extra time in Photoshop selectively sharpening the heads and eye.

I would not have bothered spending the time processsing this image if it was not for the background which I think compliments the colouring of the birds.

Is it sharp enough in your opinion or should I go with my instinct and hit delete?

Canon 1dMk4, 700mm, f5.6, 1/1000, ISO 400

C&C welcome

Austin

[Sidharth Kodikal]

The background is stunning and complements the fg so well. Love the low angle too.
Wish we could see this bigger, and I wish you good luck getting them closer to your lens the next time.

[Dave Leroy]

I certainly would not delete. It is a very nice record of an interesting activity taking place.
It does not look oversharpened, and I wonder if a bit more on the bodies would make an improvement.
I don't think it is out of level, but it seems to need a bit of cw rotation.
I might look at a crop from bottom to just above the line in water.
I agree the bg compliments the birds. Nice shot.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Austin, the sharpness looks fine to me, and good choice with the central placement. I agree with Dave on two points. Looking at the blue line below, this does need a tad of CW rotation, and I would crop a bit off there too. Lovely poses from them both.

[Doug Brown]

Beautiful birds, nice low angle, and good light. Rotation already mentioned. I wish there was a bit more light on the female's visible eye.

[Rich Steel]

Hi Austin

I know where you have been for these :), any sign of the cormorants while you were there? When I went up to the site recently there was only one bird and it was too distant to do anything with. The birds look sharp enough on my monitor. I would have wished for a catchlight in the right hand bird and the rotation issue has already been mentioned.

Cheers

Rich

[Austin Thomas]

Hi Rich,

Yes Cormorants are still there and look rather settled. I have seen them in the same place for the last three weeks now.

All, Thanks for your feedback. Out of camera I would have hit delete from the browser were it not for the background. It seems to have been worth the extra minutes in PSP to keep it alive.

Cheers

Austin

[Jonathan Ashton]

Hi Austin - yep delete!
No only kidding, it looks sharp enough to me on this size image but what I especially like is the exposure, I took very similar shots last year and managed to over expose the necks most of the time, here you have great detail in the lights and darks. The back ground is super but I don't think the bottom bit below the continuous highlight contributes anything so I would be tempted to crop there if the image would take it. Agree with 0.5 degree clockwise rotation.:)

[Kiran Poonacha]

Great pose of the birds and nice angle and light here...