12 Weeks and Counting!

[Sandy Witvoet]

"Baby Loona" is three months old now ... still several weeks before she migrates. She did take a brief moment for her own personal "photo op" before going back to pester on Mom Loon again for awhile.
Canon 60D, 300 f4 + 1.4TC, TV 1/640, f11, ISO 1000.
A few tweaks...

I see shutter blur on the bill... and would love some comments!

[LinzRiverBalmer]

Gorgeous kiddo Sandy!!!

Crop some off the bottom, not sure how much, play around. Maybe above the dark spot half up the right edge.

That will bring the focus into the beautiful ripples to the right off the bird and more emphasis on the bird itself. I don't mind the bit of blur on the bill, its not bad, go in and burn it down a tiny bit and it will be way less noticeable, I think.

I like the rest, its just a very nice soft relaxing image.

[Sandy Witvoet]

Thanks, Linz! Really appreciate your thoughtfulness and your helpful comments!

[Grace Scalzo]

I think that you have alot to work with here, Sandy. Sweet bird, lovely fresh plumage, and a nice head angle. Now for some questions. If you look carefully at the head, the browns are perfectly smooth, lacking in detail. The bill (closest to the head is perfectly sharp, so I suspect maybe you did something in post to cause that)? You mention "shutter blur". I confess that I do not know what that is, but the end of the bill does look odd. You were at f11, presumably to get some extra depth of field, but I mostly trade that for shutter speed, and make sure that the head and beak and most importantly, the eye, are in sharp focus and let the rest fall as it will. The water is ok, but i think that there is too much of it. When I do a browser scroll and trim significantly from the bottom, I find that my eye rests more easily on the bird. I often use the Nik Plug in called Tonal contrast and bring up the shadows when the water looks like this...personal taste, but I like it less contrasty. Hope this helps!

[Diane Miller]

A very pleasing image. Good advice above, but leave enough room not to crowd the nice reflection.

The color is a little unexpected -- all blue and brown -- you might look at White Balance (in RAW) and see if it really optimum. And there might be a little more detail in the darks -- how are you processing? In LR I usually need to pull the Shadows slider to the right quite a bit.

[Sandy Witvoet]

Thanks so much Grace and Diane!
Looks like I got caught up in the Drama and neglected the detail.
Also... SS (the whole image suffers here) ... I figured out that I had somehow "swapped" the ISO and SS.... I try to shoot in the range of 640 ISO/1,000-1600 ss when shooting a bird on water from a boat. Repost is significantly different, but more accurately depicts the bird's colors. Worked with the RAW sliders to recover some detail. Desaturated the water (blue) and removed a tiny bit of magenta that "showed up". Bit of NR and sharpen.

[Diane Miller]

Nice work -- you've taken the processing where it needs to be, for my tastes.

[Sandy Witvoet]

Wow! Thanks, Diane!
I admire your keen eye for color and comp, so your comment means a LOT!
I'll work on getting the techs closer to "right" while shooting.

[Grace Scalzo]

Wonderful work on the repost, Sandy. I love it!

[Sandy Witvoet]

Whoo hoo... Thank you Grace. MUCH appreciated!

[Randy Stout]

Sandy:

The repost is sig. better and looks like he should.

I think the sharpness is a dof issue, not SS, 1/1000s should be plenty for this level of activity.

If IQ will allow, I would crop even tighter from the bottom, but you will have to balance IQ vs. composition.

Cheers

Randy

[Sandy Witvoet]

Thanks for looking and commenting, Randy!
Pleased you like the repost..... But my SS was only 640...... ISO was 1,000.... My stupid error (should have worn my glasses)! Agree on your crop suggestion.... but would def have more IQ issues.

[LinzRiverBalmer]

Great RP, its a really nice shot