Baby Week - Day 1 - Avocet Chick

[Brian Sump]

I have a little collection of chicks so I thought I'd just do a series of them now that my mountain shots wrapped up.

This cutie has three siblings and they're fun to watch probing down the shoreline.

I would love it if you comment on sharpness or lack of, please be specific and note the wet head :-)

D850
600mm + 1.4x
Handheld
ISO 640
1/2500
f5.6

Post in LR and PS, DNAI. Cleaned up some moss and sticks in water, curves, levels and color bal.

[Aditya Sridhar]

Such a cute bird! I love the water in the beak and the colors throughout the frame. Sharpness looks good to me, although the second catchlight causes the illusion of a soft eye. You could clone it out if you wish to, but it's not a big deal IMO. The composition feels unbalanced to me. There's a lot of negative space at the top that you could balance by cropping in tighter overall or by shifting the composition further down to include more of the reflection. The image could also use a slight CCW rotation, I think. Nicely done Brian. Looking forward to seeing more of these chicks :)

[gail bisson]

This is excellent Brian!
Chicks are tricky re: sharpness because often the fuzz gets crunchy if sharpen too much. I think you got this just right!
Love the low POV and the water trail into the beak.
I would clone out the second catchlight if mine. Whites look good too.
I am OK with your composition.
I agree with Aditya that you could use a tiny bit of CCW rotation.
A really nice frame.
Gail

[Brian Sump]

Thank you both! Not sure how I missed the second catchlight... usually good about that :-)

So I rotated this thing back and forth several times and it would go from one extreme to the next. If you look at the lines in the reflection below as well as the water behind the bird, everything already seems too much CCW. However, when you look at the water in front of the bird as well as the blues in the bkg, they seem to be rotated too much CW. Appreciate the thoughts on this, could prob use a touch CCW.

Aditya, played with different crops. Seems like it's generally regarded here that you want more above than below and that makes sense to me. The reflections below just about ceased where the bottom of canvas is so that is a good reference point IMO. Could have brought it down from UL some but then it became closer to 50/50 above and below water line. And remember, it's a chick so I avoided filling the frame too much as they are smaller in the grand scheme. Cropping is so subjective but I appreciate your thoughts on this!

[David Roach]

Love the low POV, the spot on details/sharpening and the water. Super canvas overall. TFS

[John Mack]

The low angle is bang on. Really like that blue in the water. Nice to see the tension of the water on the bill.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Cute but awkward age, kinda like the early teen years lol. Sharpening looks perfect tome as well here. Man, that rotation issue is a hair-puller. It does not need it, in a technical way, but the illusion is there. Even the vertical lines in the reflection are perfectly straight down. It's that long and slightly upward curled blue streak that is causing the illusion IMO. Anyhow, I like the feeding pose, and we can even see part of whatever it picked up, which is pretty cool.

[Dorian Anderson]

I agree the subject looks really good! As Gail mentioned, the fuzz is rally had to handle in PP, so I think you've done well here. I don't mind the negative space, and I appreciate the rotation battle you describe. Since the reflection and outer ring aren't
perfectly orthogonal, you have to split the difference and hope for the best! Low angle is money....

[Brian Sump]

Much appreciated Daniel and Dorian