Late yesterday afternoon, about the same time in about the same spot, I captured this image of Mom who was dining with seven youngsters. This time instead of back light the family let myself and another photographer carefully walk paste them putting the sun behind us. C&C welcome.
D500, Sigma 150-600mm C @ 600mm, 1/2500s, f/6.3, HH, ISO 1250.
Geoffrey, really like the composition of this one!
The lighting appears nicely warm which is great; great adjustment. For me it appears as though it could take a bit more sharpening as the head and neck appear a touch soft. Not sure what you're using now but both Unsharp Mask and Smart Sharpen are popular here, as you likely know. You might take a look and see what Smart Sharpen 40 or 50 and 0.3 radius looks like or whatever method you prefer.
Additionally, I think some denoise in the bkg could help richen it up a touch. The habitat appearance here could be very subjective, however and I understand that.
It's good shot Geoffrey. I would suggest using the Targeted adjustment tool to bring down the highlights, add say 10 of Texture and Clarity and just a little more Sharpen, if you do this to the Raw file I think you will see a big difference.....WDYT??
The best thing here is the perfect head angle. I am not a fan of the light tan road or path behind the bird ... It would have been OK on the opposite side in front of the bird. Good stuff above except that the highlights look fine to me.
with love, artie
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