a fine flap..

[annmpacheco]

I was fortunate the wind shifted a bit for me to squeak out this pose and HA from a red -throated diver in Iceland. The whites are not blown but any suggestions for fine tuning the right side of the breast to get more detail? I cleaned up the second catchlight and stamped the left side edge bc a distant partial loon was there...Thanks

1Dx
600mmII
840mm
ISO 1000
f6.3
1/3200

[Marina Scarr]

What a super pose in great light and wonderful colors. Overall exposure looks spot on to my eyes. The only suggestion I have is that since your bird is looking right, to take a little bit off of the left and add a tad to the right.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Ann it looks great to me too, the left side is a little darker but that is natural, a luminosity mask is probably a good bet if you want to lift it a little or a quick mask and the make a new curves adjustment layer.
A lovely pose and I like the background too.

[gail bisson]

Very nice Ann! I would add a bit more room on the right for the bird to look into.
IQ excellent and PP looks good!
The whites are a bit hot so you could try burning the area at about 5% strength but be careful because that sometimes makes the whites grey.
Jon suggestion are good as well.
You could also try Detail Extractor or white neutralizer in NIK EFEX Pro if you have that plug-in.
Gail

[Joseph Przybyla]

Beautiful bird, lovely wing position, background to die for. The suggestions I read I think will only add to a fine image. Thank you for sharing, Ann.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Quite an appealing image here, sharp and beautiful colours. Although I do wish the wings were more widely open I still like the pose. I like the composition suggestion you got. As for the whites, which I think look fine here, my favorite tool is the burn tool, set to 8% exposure on the midtones with a soft brush (5% would work too, and you could do a second pass if needed).

[Bill Dix]

Great pose, colors, light. I watched them do their wingflaps a number of times, and they don't always take them to the max, stopping short of full wide open. If he had done so here it would have been icing on the cake. And a little room on the right.

[Randy Stout]

Ann:

I really like the color harmony here with the orange/reds of neck mirrored in the background. Nice angle in frame, shooting angle. Agree about the comp with others, a sliver more on the right side.

re: whites. You were given lots of good options. I would personally run a luminosity mask on the image, and adjust the mask to only work on the brightest whites, and then run a multiply layer on top of that, adjusting the level to get the desired effect. I have had a few images of white breasted birds to try this on, and that is more current favorite technique. I do agree with Gail, that you have to be careful in your whites handling to not make them gray.

I assume you were shooting from the shore?

Cheers

Randy