Kingfisher with a good catch

[Mike Hitchen]

I have had this image lurking on my computer for a while now trying to find the best way to work it and I have reached a bit of a stalemate. Maybe I have got too involved with it and need to look at it with a different eye and posting here may help (along with a few C&C)

This is on a local river where the bank is often in shade with the sun shining down the middle of the river so with judicious use of exposure I can throw the background dark wiht the sun lighting the wet bird (except for the boulder at the back! Grrr!) and give a different feel to many such shots.

Canon 7D with 100-400
ISO 800, f5.6 1/750.
It has needed quite a bit of highlight recovery and noise reduction.
Taken in landscape format the crop is full height but a little under half width and the crop here is what I hope is a balance that does not get too much of the long boulder in - do you think it is still distracting? I quite like the rippled reflection underneath, my wife prefers to make it more landscape by taking off about alf from the bottom and extending right (which also gets more of the splash)

[Bill Dix]

Wow, this is a tough one. I just love the action, the splash, and the fish spewing an arc of water. Good quick reactions to capture this. If it just weren't for that boulder.... It's such a magical shot that it's worth some experimenting. You just might be able to select the area of the boulder on a layer, select out the drops in that area, and then clone or paint in some of the adjacent background color. At least that's what I'd attempt. As to crop, I prefer the OP but with a little more off the bottom and right, maybe.

[William Dickson]

I agree with Bill that the first post is the best crop Mike. Fantastic capture and I love the way the water is being thrown about. esp the part coming from the head of the fish, which unfortunately is in front of the boulder reflection. I would work on this big style and remove the boulder completely. Cool image.

Will

[Mike Hitchen]

Well it looks like I have got many a happy hour in front of me....most of my processing has been done in Lightroom so I have not used layers much. But I think it may be worth it.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Wow super image!! I like the shape of the first one.
Regards realigning/cropping because it is such a good image I would see if I could take the RHS, laterally invert it and then place it on the LHS, that way the splashes should hopefully be pointing in the right direction. This would then allow you to place the bird a bit more to the right in the frame. Does that sound like a plan? Sounds easy in practice but it may take a little of jiggling about.

[gail bisson]

This is one of those "if only " shots. If only that boulder wasn't there.
Was your SS only 1/750?
Love the water splash and droplets.
I find that the IQ of the fish is not very good and my eye keeps going back to it. Perhaps if you tried to reduce the overexposed areas on it, it would help.
I like Jonathan's idea but it will be very difficult to get the water droplets to match up and look natural.
Can you go back to this location and move the rock out of the bank for future images?
gail

[Mike Hitchen]

Thank you, Gail.
I have tried masking the droplets which seems to be working OK, the problem is getting a background of greens/blacks to fade properly when I mask out the boulder. You don't realise how the subtle gradations add up until you get a jarring line between what is there and the stuff you have 'created'.
I also agree regards the fish - that needs some work as well.

Maybe this weekend.