Pie Billed Grebe

[Lyle Gruby]

Shot fellow in Houston. I was lying on the ground shooting ducks and he slowly worked his way closer and closer. He got a little anxious and eased off after I pointed the lens his direction. Full frame, resized and sharpened were only edits. All C&C appreciated.

Techs:
D7000
200-400 with 1.4 at 550mm
f/5.6
1/2000
ISO 500
HH

[Randy Stout]

Lyle:

excellent shooting angle, soft background, drops on back, Looks like the head could be sharpened just a bit more. An option would be to darken the pupil a bit to improve the apparent sharpness.

The light angle from well to the left gave it a nice sense of depth, but perhaps a sliver of shadow work to open up the darker areas would be helpful.

Cheers

Randy

[Lyle Gruby]

Thanks for the feedback Randy. I really struggled with the sharpening on this shot. There seemed to be an extremely fine line between sharp and crunchy on this guy's wet feathers. I didn't sharpen much and should have just sharpening the head and eye. That's a very good suggestion for the eye.

[Randy Stout]

Lyle:

Wet feathers are a real challenge, and often you just can't get them looking as sharp as you would like. Thats why concentrating on the eye and bill may give the best apparent sharpness for the head.

Cheers

Randy

[Cheryl Arena Molennor]

Beautiful light and low angle. I love the tones here as well and the water droplets.

[dankearl]

Lyle, Beautiful image, nice muted color and nice angle.
I would just sharpen the bill, easy fix., the feathers look fine.

[PhilCook]

Lovely setting with the smooth water. nice eye contact with the camera and lovely smooth backdrop..head/eye does look a bit soft and maybe it needs a slight CCW rotation