Canon 7D
Canon 300mm f.2.8 II + 1.4 II extender
1/1250 @ 6.3
+1 EV
Aperture priority
ISO 400
Pattern
Levels
Saturation
Selective Color
Nik Software color Efex Pro 4 - Tonal contrast & Detail extractor - subject only, Dfine 2.0 - background only
Photoshop USM on subject only
Nice and sharp and a lovely bird molting into breeding plumage. Wish that we could fully see both feet. I like the distant BKGR and the neat pose. Rotating the bird a bit clockwise might make it appear that it is not leaning backwards....
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Hi Nick,
I like the IQ and the subject.
I am not fussy about the square crop and would take some off the top and add on the RHS.
I might reduce the exposure by a 1/3.
Gail
PS Just read Artie's suggestion and think it is a great idea
Very nicely exposed and great details. The BG looks great and the bird pop from it well. I agree that it looks like it is leaning back, might be the hill of sand giving the illusion. Nice work.
Lesson of the day, when taking an image using a bean bag as support make sure the camera / lens is level, you were correct Artie the bird was leaning back, in fact it was leaning so far back it could have been a limbo dancer. When I had leveled the bird I was a bit short of canvas so I have stolen some from another image as well as stretching it and cloning some in. I have also darkened the image slightly. Thanks for the replies BTW.
I much prefer the repost, the LRC is not as dominant as I thought it would be by adding back some canvas there. You could add some subtle vignetting in that corner and along the right half of the bottom edge just to help put all our attention on the subject.