Spotted Redshank

[Svante Larsson]

Image taken (of a not very common bird around here) in a very wet area outside Stockholm :2eyes2:. Before I arrived I wasn't aware that cows had been walking in the mudbanks which meant that it was basically no bottom in the mud - came home with both myself and the tripod covered in slime.

Nikon D300
500 mm f/4 with TC 1.7
ISO800
Exposure 1/160 sec
f/6.7

The weather was very overcast and when I got in the position the flash refused to work so the exposure times became very long. This image is full frame which I guess to some extent saves it. Have cloned out a few bright reflexes otherwise mainly a bit of levels, curves and noise reduction of the background and sharpening of the bird. Not to sure how well the NR worked, I usually use gaussian blur. C&C would be very welcome - I am here to learn:p.

[Ray Rozema]

Exposure and detail looks very good. the circle of waves and drop of water on the bill is a nice touch. Would prefer different HA with more direct eye contact. Might consider toning down the white vertical line intersecting the bird. Overall looks like the slime was worth it Good effort.

[Julie Kenward]

Svante, it's a beautiful image. I, too, would try to tone down the white stripe in the BG. One way is to use the eyedropper tool set to 3x3 or 5x5 sample and grab the color next to the stripe - that soft green would work. This will put the green in the FG square on the tool bar. Then take a soft brush, set to 20-30% opacity and lightly go over that white area and see if that doesn't tone it down and blend it in with the rest of the water a bit more. Normally, the white stripe wouldn't be that big of a deal but when it looks like it's coming out of the bird's head, it's best to tone it down!

Also...and this is a biggie in bird photography...you always want to leave room in the frame of the image for what we call "imaginary legs." I am not familiar with this bird but I'm betting he's got several inches of legs in the water so I'd respectfully suggest that a better way to have framed this would be to move him higher in the frame with more room down below for those "imaginary legs."

Big pluses here are the beautiful catch light in his eye and the water drop at the end of his beak. The HA doesn't bother me as it leaves me wondering what the bird is doing and that's totally drawing me into the image.

[John Chardine]

Agree with the above commentary. This is a really nice image. I will add unless I have missed it above that I would like to see more room given to the bird to the left and maybe a little less to the right. That way the bird is not facing the short side of the image. I also think that another round of sharpening may be a benefit.

[Michael Gerald-Yamasaki]

Svante,

Greetings. Nice looking common bird you have there... Good comments above, particularly Jules' technique on toning down the bright reflection (Thanks, Jules... I'll use this one in the future for sure)...

Oh, one additional thing... might try a slight CW rotation...

Cheers,

-Michael-