American Avocet

[Miguel Palaviccini]

Taken a couple of weekends ago at Merritt Island. The light was coming in from the side, and I feel that the image is a bit "flat". I'm hoping to get some suggestion on how to improve this in post.

Shooting info:
Nikon D800 | 500 f/4 + 1.4x | HH
1/800" | f/9 | ISO 640

[Ian Cassell]

Hi Miguel,

Avocets are just about my favorite waders. I really don't think the light here is too flat. I really like the water drop off the beak. I would be tempted to take some off the bottom as I don't think the reflection is adding much here. I'm using a crummy image editor at work, but here's a rough approximation.

[Doug West]

I like Ian's repost. I agree with him about cropping out the reflection. With Ian's
crop that droplet of water really stands out now.

Doug

[Faraaz Abdool]

Wow, I actually only saw the droplet in Ian's version.

Even though the light is coming in from the side, the bird is still exposed correctly. Looks fine to me on my work monitor!

[Grant China]

I like the reflection and the space for the "virtual legs" in the original crop but I think here the water drop off the beak adds a great deal of interest to the shot. I like Ian's crop because it's easier to see the water drop. Also, the tighter crop makes it easier to see the great feather detail that you captured.

[Marina Scarr]

You were dealing with some tough lighting conditions here. I love the pose and the water drop and water swirl. Details looks good. Original framing works pretty well with maybe just a sliver off of the right.

[Leon Plympton]

Miguel -

Your capture of this avocet is quite impressive (especially in light of your hand-holding a 500/f4 lens w/ a 1.4 tc); however, Ian's cropping of your original post has taken an already fine image up another notch (imo).

It looks to me as though the water is reflecting a gray overcast sky; mix that w/ a whitish, grayish, blackish bird and you're not going to get an image that leaps off a PC monitor. That said, as mentioned above, you managed to capture a good bit of feather detail, which again is all the more impressive in the tighter crop.

BTW: I noticed that you also claim Gainesville, FL as home. I suspect you've already trekked LaChua Trail out on Paynes Prairie, and if not, boy, are you ever missing out on capturing all sorts of wildlife (feathered and otherwise). Right now I'm getting over pneumonia, but when I'm fully recovered I'll be back on the trail - and I'll be looking for you and your D-800 and 500mm/f4 Nikkor.

Ciao!

- leon