Proud Loon

[Sandy Witvoet]

Hi... This is a Loon I photographed awhile back... as it's cold, snowy and just downright gloomy here, I'm hoping to have a few more Loon ops this Spring/Summer (if Spring/Summer ever get here!) Canon 60D, 400mm F4 DO, ISO 640, f 7.1 ss 1/800. Straighten a bit, crop, pulled back on the yellow and magenta....Sharpen a bit.

[Diane Miller]

OK -- good to see you back, Sandy -- even if it means digging into the archives! (Summer will come...) Nice pose, with the soft focus in the BG helping the bird stand out. The FG is a little more distracting -- you might consider some discreet blurring.

We have Common Loons out here -- they are not nearly as nattily dressed as yours. But then out here I think the only thing anyone dresses up for is the Academy Awards.

I don't know what these guys really look like, but wonder if the tonalities on the face and neck are a little low in contrast? I think it would be good if you can pull out more detail (and a slightly lower exposure) in the whites on the lower neck.

Did the original frame have any more at the bottom? The reflection seems a bit crowded.

Looking forward to seeing more!

[Adhika Lie]

Loons are beautiful! Pretty much what Diane said but to me, the hot neck is quite distracting. The pattern on the folded wing, though, is a winner.

[Doug West]

The three things I'd do are:

1. Because the reflection is pretty much useless since its not very define, I'd crop just below the Loon
to get rid of the distraction.

2. Add some canvas to the left hand side.

3. Remove that vertical blur that's running from the top to just behind the Loons head.

Doug

[Glennie Passier]

Sandy, What a neat looking bird, in his dinner jacket. I am unable to comment on the colour of the bird, but agree with Doug, Diane and Adhika on all counts. I do like the little water droplets on the bird.

We are coming into Winter here now and I am so looking forward to it. It's been a long, hot summer.

[Diane Miller]

Here is a version with the vertical reflection removed (easy to mask the neck with the Quick Selection tool), then I did a partial opacity cloning on the FG to soften the contrast (cloning from the water above the bird) then did a blur there -- both very softly feathered up to the bird.

Didn't try to work on the white -- you'd need to go back to the raw for that as it is blown in the JPEG. May or may not be in raw.

[Sandy Witvoet]

Whoo Hoo! "My" work is DONE! Magnificent Diane! You can see from the "eye catch" that the light was coming from over my left shoulder, directly onto the Loon's neck, so between that and the light also reflecting off the water below... well, whites there are totally blown in the RAW also. Sigh. Forgot to mention that I had softened a similar vertical on the right side... debated about the one dropping onto/into the bird's neck.... I'm not too good at fixing that. The only "thing" I'm seeing on Diane's RP, is a greenish color over the four stripes at the back of the Loon's neck. Last, totally agree, the reflection added "nada" to the pic. Thank you Diane... Thanks all!

[Diane Miller]

Yeah, the reflection is a problem but you can't just crop it.