Sandhill Cranes

[Carolyn Arnesen]

These Sandhill Cranes are winter residents, returning each year to feed on the un-harvested grain in local farm fields. I'd appreciate feedback on this image. I selectively sharpened and raised the curve just a bit on the birds, darkened the FG slightly, and ran NR on BG.

7D, Canon EF300 +1.4, F/6.3, 1/2000, ISO 400, HH, FF

[Tim Foltz]

Carolyn, nice group shot of sandhills, maybe just a bit bore room on the sides.
A pano crop would have worked nice on this also.

-Tim

[Carolyn Arnesen]

Thanks, Tim, good point about the pano crop.

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Carolyn, I quite like the framing and tones of colour within the capture, but sadly for me the image looks soft, with no real clarity/definition to the subjects. You may wish to apply more USM, how much did you apply?

TFS
Steve

[Carolyn Arnesen]

Thanks, Steve. Not sure if this works any better. I took some off the bottom, lowered the contrast slightly on the birds, lightened and applied USM.