Dotterel

[William Dickson]

Canon 5D Mk3
f/2.8 300mm Mk1 with 2x
f/6.3
1/1600
ISO 640

This is one from July 2014, which I found whilst 'tidying' up files. At the time, this bird was high on my bucket list, and I knew, the only place to get a look at them was on the summit of Cairngorm mountain. This is the coldest place in the UK, still snow in the BG, they come here to nest. We walked to the top, hung around and never saw a thing. It was windy and cloudy. After around 3 hours we decided to make our way back down, and then this Male Dotterel with a his chick appeared just before we left. The colours on the bird change three times every year. This is him in full breeding plumage.

Will

[Glenn Pure]

What a fantastic find in your archive. So much to like here Will. The setting, pose and background are all wonderful and beautiful detail. A few things that I would revisit if mine: the background looks a bit noisy and the front of the bird looks a bit 'hot' and blown. Maybe you tried to recover and couldn't? But this is definitely such a nice image, I give it another go.

[William Dickson]

Thanks for your comments and observations Glenn. I did tone down the whites in front of the bird, and on my iMac they look ok here, some are on the limit, at 238, but I can still see detail. Again, I think when whites are on the limit, the 5k iMac shows them good, and on other monitors, they look blown. I have experienced this observation before. No NR was needed, as again it looked ok on the iMac. I do see some posterisation though, but no noise, it wasn't a big crop. There is no posterisation on the Tiff file. On another note, I downloaded Neat Image, and following your guide, I am more than happy with it, so thanks for that.

Will

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

Looks perfectly fine on 4K now that I know how to look at the damned images. LOL

Bright, but I cannot see anywhere that is blown. Beautiful composition and nice POV. TFS

[John Mack]

Cool looking bird. Nice pose as well. Like the environment and the grasses.

[Bill Dix]

Congratulations on finding this bird, and then re-finding him in your files. Great pose, POV; nice looking environment. On first glance I also felt there was a "recovered" look to some of the whites, although I can't define that. I wonder if going back to the RAW file and lowering the exposure a tad would do anything? In any case, it's a fine looking image just as posted.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Great bird, perch, BG, and story. I am not thrilled with the lower right corner, but all else looks good to me.

[Isaac Grant]

I like the grand pose and the nice habitat. I agree with Daniel that the lower right corner is not ideal. The colors of the bird look off to me. It looks too blue, instead of having brownish gray wings. The orange on the belly looks too thin. I would rework the bird on this shot by reducing the blues, adding some more blacks and trying to get more depth of color.