Osprey on the beach

[Blake Cook]

I spotted this Osprey tearing up a fish on the beach just north of Santa Rosalia Baja Sur. Unfortunately I made a mess of the in flight shots. Now that I see it online it looks a bit oversharp.
1DIV, 70-200 f/2.8II + 1.4 TC 280mm f/6.3, 1/400

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/28305360@N00/5094379516/" title="Osprey by Blake Cook, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4112/5094379516_43ee7be923_o.jpg" width="1024" height="683" alt="Osprey" /></a>

[Randy Stout]

Blake:

Excellent pose by the bird, a bit oversharpened as mentioned, some color noise/compression artifact showing up in the blue background.
Light angle was to your right a bit, but the birds head turn towards the light helps. The light was pretty contrasty as evidenced by the deep shadows.

If you have anymore canvas, I wouldn't mind seeing a sliver more below for the virtual feet, and a bit more to the left.

I might consider toning down the large rock in the background under his rump.

Birds in flight are a challenge. I would recommend finding the most common bird in your area, gulls, whatever, and hammer away at them, trying different settings to find what works best for you. BIF takes practice, practice, and the a little more practice.

Cheers

Randy

[Aidan Briggs]

Randy nailed the critique. Nice low angle and pose from the bird. Tack sharp too. I might de-saturate the blues just a tad.

Keep them coming!!

[Alan Murphy]

Nice detail and eye contact. Light a bit harsh and the subject too centered for my taste.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Not sure what was to your left, but moving right would have aligned you nicely with the light angle and gotten rid of the OOF object below the osprey (or at least given it better separation). Harsh light didn't help you out either, with a resulting contrasty look, including some hot whites. I like how you timed the image with an alert pose. I also like the low angle, and the blue BG.

[Arthur Morris]

Not much to add to the excellent critiques above other than to say, "Welcome" and I like the head angle.

[Blake Cook]

Thanks all, for your comments and suggestions. I'll make some adjustments and repost, if that's proper etiquette??

The BIF attempt was thwarted because I didn't have the surrounding focus points enabled and focus jumped to background.

I converted raw with DPP and edited in PS and was really surprised how oversaturated it was when opened in PS. I cut the saturation of the blue by 25%. I rarely adjust saturation by more than about 3 or 4% normally. Contrast was reduced by -20 as well. That's the last time I set jpg to landscape. It seems to be embedded in the file when PS gets hold of it, even though it was shot in raw.

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/28305360@N00/5095001401/" title="CE0C8775Osprey1 by Blake Cook, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4124/5095001401_99621a79cb_o.jpg" width="1024" height="683" alt="CE0C8775Osprey1" /></a>

[Randy Stout]

Blake:

This is a different image than the one you posted originally, but your handling of the contrast and colors are much better. Can see some detail in the fish now and the water looks much more realistic.
In general, we prefer you do your repost on the original image, although occasionally a second image will illustrate a point or problem better.
Whites are still hot on crown. Might try a linear burn or multiply selection/mask to tone them down.

Look forward to more.

Randy

[Blake Cook]

Randy,

Thanks for the comments an suggestions. Unfortunately I haven't had enough time with PS to get to "linear burn or.. masks". Soon however..

Blake