Perfect Downstroke?

[Joseph Przybyla]

I captured this image of a Roseate Spoonbill at Circle B Bar Reserve in Polk County, Florida. Comments and critique welcomed and appreciated. Thank you for viewing.

Nikon D500
Nikon 80-400mm F/4.5-5.6 VRII AF-S ED, image captured at 280mm
1/2000 F/5.6 Matrix Metering EV +1/3 ISO 280 Auto 1 WB HH
Post processed in Lightroom Classic, Photoshop CC 2019 and Neat Image for noise reduction
Cropped and canvas added for composition and presentation

[kevin Hice]

Perfect for me Joe. Really beautiful and great light. I have always been fascinated with spoonbills have only seen them a couple of times. TFS

[Arthur Morris]

Perfect downstroke. In a perfect world, the far wing would have been completely hidden behind the near-wing. The colors look a bit muddy -- was this a fairly large crop? Head and sun angles right on.

with love, a

[Joseph Przybyla]

Perfect downstroke. In a perfect world, the far wing would have been completely hidden behind the near-wing. The colors look a bit muddy -- was this a fairly large crop? Head and sun angles right on.

with love, a

Hey Artie, thanks for viewing and commenting. Not sure if this would be a big crop, the bird was positioned in the top of the frame so what I cropped off the bottom was canvas added to the top. Here is the image as out of the camera. Underexposed as I was photographing birds in the pond when I saw this one take off and fly by.

[Joseph Przybyla]

I started again with the RAW file. Paying attention to the colors and exposure. I think this edit is better.

[John Mack]

For me this would be a perfect downstroke. The light looks nice and i like the composition. The head looks a touch soft.

[Arthur Morris]

Thanks for sharing the original. You did a good job adding canvas and re-positioning the subject. I usually love the IQ of your D-500 photos but this one looks somewhat suspect with a lack of fine detail and the slightly muddy colors that I mentioned before.

with love, artie

[Ivan Sjogren]

The wing position is indeed spot-on! The light and exposure is also very nice. I'm a bit sceptical towards the rest though.
I would have prefered a better background with less blue sky. But the main problem for me is that the head and the near wing seems blurry. A bit more dof might have helped you here.

[Joseph Przybyla]

Thanks everyone for viewing and commenting, very much appreciated.

I concur with all that commented on the image sharpness and color. Mistakes in post processing. Regarding the sharpness/detail, guess a senior error, I forgot to sharpen the image. Guess I was concentrating on why the colors were muddy and just forgot that step. Here is a repost hopefully better on both counts. Thanks again for another set of eyes and your comments.