Oldie but Goodie

[Arthur Morris]

Great White Pelican (baited with fish) from the Lake Kerkini (Greece) trip a few years back. 70-200 II with the 2X III TC (hand held at 400mm) and the 1D IV. ISO 400. Evaluative metering at 0: 1/1250 sec. at f/8 in Manual mode.

Don't be shy; all comments welcome.

[Nick Palmieri]

I like the composition. The curves and lines in the pelicans body make this crop work well. Great details and color in the bird.

[Alison McCoy]

Beautiful colors and detail.

[Sachin Saraf]

Beautiful colors and details...For big birds DOF is always tricky wish the tip of the beak was sharp...

[Mike Milicia]

Nicely composed portrait with excellent head angle and great eye contact which is what really makes the image for me!

Some of the whites on the body look overly bright to me and that is causing less detail to show in those areas than on the rest of the body.
Looks like all the detail is there ... maybe selectively tone it down to bring it out more?

[Dennis Zaebst]

Lovely image overall.. I agree that the tones look too bright on my monitor. I would think the colors would pop more if exposure were reduced slightly in post. I understand the detail is there in the whites, but I think it would look more saturated at a 1/3 to 1/2 stop less overall.

[Karl Egressy]

Great head angle, excellen details and great eye contact. The coloration of the beak and head is interesting, different from what you see in Florida. Composition is attractive. Great image.

[Gerald Kelberg]

That will be February 2011, if I'm not mistaken!

Nice composition, but I'm with Mike in finding the whites a little too bright.

Best wishes,

Gerald

[dankearl]

I don't think the whites are too bright at all!
There is a lot of detail and texture and curves to look at.
Exposed perfectly for me.
My only critique is I find the end of the bill a bit soft, probably out of DOF range, but I might try to sharpen a tad.

[Troy Lim]

Nice composed, I like how the beak pointing towards the bottom right hand corner. Whites are spot on.

[Sidharth Kodikal]

Whites look good on my monitor too. I'm surprised you didn't clean up the three spots in the water, Artie.
What a cool looking species! Did you ever post a head shot of this species that shows off that impressive bill?

[Satish Ranadive]

Arthur Sir:
Gorgeous close-up with great IQ.Love the colors,eye and wonderful details.

Regards,
Satish.

[Arthur Morris]

I don't think the whites are too bright at all! There is a lot of detail and texture and curves to look at. Exposed perfectly for me. My only critique is I find the end of the bill a bit soft, probably out of DOF range, but I might try to sharpen a tad.

Thanks a stack Dank! I agree with you 100%. As for the end of the bill, I already applied a strong (20/75/)) Contrast Mask to the distal half of the bill and did not want to overdo it. it was really soft in the original due to lack of d-o-f at such close range.

Thanks also to Troy and Siddarth. From where I sit the WHITEs are perfect. No RGB values greater than 230 with lots of detail in virtually all of the WHITEs.

Thanks to all who chimed in here. I will try to post another find from the reject pile soon :).