White pelican doing his thing

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

40D. 400 f5.6L wide-open. iso 200. 1/5000s. evaluative -2/3. The contrast is natural. The bird was lit by bright morning light but the trees in Bg were in deep shade. I like the wide range of motions they go through with their large bills.

Should I go lighter on the whites? I did not want to lose the darkness in the Bg and while processing, whiter whites looked a bit odd. But I think I should give it a try again.

All C&C welcome and appreciated.

[Doug Brown]

The whites look fine on my monitor, but it's brand new (13" MacBook Air) and I'm not entirely used to it yet (just got it yesterday). I happen to be a big fan of bright birds against dark BGs. I like the thrown back head, although I wish we had a better look at the eye.

[Stu Bowie]

Kaus, interesting behaviour and pose, and well done for going after somthing different. Good placement, and I like how the bill faces towards the URC. Stands out very well against the darker BG.

[Katie Rupp]

I like it very much with the early morning light but I think I'd like to see it with the whites just a tiny bit lighter. Interesting and unusual pose and the dark bg is nicely dramatic.

[Pieter de Waal]

Kaustubh, unique pose and good exposure and defenition in the whites, I also like the dark background with the play of light on the water. Nice image and a bit more eye contact would have been great but not to important with this pose.

[Bill Dix]

Interesting pose. Whites look good to me and I like the dark BG. No one else mentioned it, so it's probably my aging eyes, but to me it looks like a little more USM might help.

[denise ippolito]

Kaustubh, I love the pose and the whites look great to me especially against the darker BG. I also really like the color tones of the water. Well done.

[Harshad Barve]

Terrific image , lovely pose and killer BG
TFS

[Ken Watkins]

What a pose, I would try to lighten it a bit

[Gavin Spooner]

I love the pose and the contrast on this image. I would like to see the whites lighter, and on a second look, the fade to black background does seem a little strange.

cheers
Gavin

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Thx everyone for all the feedback. The whites are going to boil to personal preference I think.

Gavin, I see what you are saying....but its probably because of jpeg compression. I havent even run NR on the BG here. not needed as iso is 200.