Roseate Spoonbill in the last light of day

[Arthur Morris]

This image was created on the last afternoon of the 2106 Fort DeSoto Fall IPT with the Induro GIT 304L/Mongoose M3.6-mounted Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS II USM lens, the Canon Extender EF 2X III, and my favorite bird photography camera body, the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV. ISO 1600. Evaluative metering +2/3 stop: 1/125 sec. at f/8 in Manual mode. AWB. LensAlign/FocusTune micro-adjustment: -5. Three AF points up from the center AF point/AI Servo/rear button focus on the bird’s eye and re-compose. Click here to see the latest version of the Rear Focus Tutorial.

This one started out as a mega-underexposure. You can read the whole story and see the before and after animated GIF in the blog post here.

As for the image, don't be shy; all honest critiques are greatly appreciated. with love, artie

[Randy Stout]

Artie:

A lovely time of day to work, soft light shows the subtle colors, excellent eye contact, head angle. I like the subtle color harmony of the bill with the background.

I always find such shots a challenge to crop. Was it shot as a portrait or landscape?

I didn't know that your lens went to f/89. Extreme DOF, but I would have expected more diffraction and an exposure time measured in hours

I miss seeing the spoonies in person.

Cheers

Randy

[Arthur Morris]

Thanks Randy. This was created as a vertical original. F/89 was a typo that I have corrected :) My guidelines for front-end verticals: give the bird an inch behind the legs ... If you follow the link to the blog post you will see that I was actually too tight here left and below and needed to add canvas. with love, artie

[Jonathan Ashton]

I really like the head angle, I appreciate this is high key, just a personal viewpoint and I am sure many will disagree with me but I think the plumage detail would be far more evident if a curves layer brought everything down just a little.

[John Mack]

Love the background here, the detail on the bird is very nice as well.

[Tim Foltz]

Artie, one of the birds on my bucket list. Awesome BG, HA and details.
Great comp. balancing positive and negative space and really sweet pastel colors.

-Tim

[William Dickson]

The colours throughout the image are very pleasing to the eye. I like the crop and fab looking HA. Beautiful light, showing the colours at their best.

Will

[Mike Poole]

Lovely Artie, good to read the background to the shot as well. These were on my hit list a few weeks ago in Florida, but alas, not this time. I'll have to come back again!

The yellow water really adds to the overall delicate look here and offers something different to a standard portrait.

Mike

[Isaac Grant]

Very pretty shot. Love the pose and the colors all work perfectly together. Thank you for the tip about the legs. I also always struggle about how to crop this type of shot but will now work off of your 1 inch behind the legs rule. I could see what Jonathan is saying about a curves layer but sometimes a shot like this is about the light more than the details. I think toning it down would lose some of the magic.

[Joseph Przybyla]

Yup, beautiful bird, perfect head angle, wonderful background. I took note of your suggestion to crop one inch behind the legs. Thank you for sharing, Artie.

[David Salem]

Beautiful frame Artie!! Love the soft pastel colors, the soft light and the solid eye contact. BG looks great too. Well done

[Arthur Morris]

I really like the head angle, I appreciate this is high key, just a personal viewpoint and I am sure many will disagree with me but I think the plumage detail would be far more evident if a curves layer brought everything down just a little.

Thanks for stopping by Jon and making a suggestion; it is appreciated. If I wanted a bit more detail in the pink feathers I would have applied my NIK 30-30 recipe as that would have done it better than a Curves ADJ. But I like them as they are, nice and soft.

with love, artie