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Lifetime Member
Bathing Little Grebe chick
Dusted off the camera the other day and tried t remember which way round to point it - it's been a while!
Heard about a good location for the normally skittish little grebes so went more on a scouting mission. Found 3 chicks together and, in typical fashion, they swam a bit too close as one had an after bath splash. Rotated and had to add a little extra canvas as it is so tight
Canon R5
600mm f4 + 1.4xiii
ISO 2000
1/2500th f6.3
Mike
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BPN Member
Hi Mike .. at least you used the kit the right way not looking through the big glass in front , think you have used the viewfinder or the flipped screen on the back .
Neat little Grebe and the action , behavior is nice .
Framing does look ok to me , albeit a bit tight on RHS for me .
Sadly I have to say .... that I am not so " happy " with the tones and the colors ....
Regarding the tones : you have lost detail in the bright parts and the overall tonality is looking a bit " flat" to me . In terms of color i think the " oranges " are a bit dominating for my taste ... but this is for sure a subjective thing .
TFS Andreas
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Macro and Flora Moderator
Nice capture and being a chick I think there may not be too much tonal contrast but my first impression was similar, it looks a little lacking in tonal expression rather bright - may reduce overall exposure/brightness a tad??
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Publisher
Sweet bird and action and sharp on the face. The tonal contrast looks just fine to me but I agree with Jon that pulling the curve down a bit would be a good plan. And as above, wider would have been better.
with love, a
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Hi Mike, what a pleasant surprise to see your post, I hope you continue to stick around! sweet lil grebe and i like the motion of the shake, I agree with pulling down the curve. TFS
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BPN Member
I am a fan of closeups.comp is fine. Needed more DOF though and not possible..
Face looks great except turned away..
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Super Moderator
I like the action but the IQ is lacking, I see noise on the pupil and the head just looks a bit soft. I have a few shots of the grebes shaking and I find you need 1/4000sec or faster to get a tack sharp file.
TFS
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Lifetime Member
Thanks for all the comments, here's a version with the curves pulled down a touch as mentioned - colour wise I'm fine as presented

Mike
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Avian Moderator
Mike, sweet action with this little Grebe.
I think you did really well with the mids adjustment and a little denoise, if smartly applied could help!
The pose and stare work nicely and the green water is sweet.
The main issues for me is the bright white splotch on the chin and the whites on the beak appear blown unfortunately. Also, I think there are some cloning remnants in the bottom right corner as well as in front of the subject below the chin?
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Wildlife Moderator
Hi Mike, I like the pose as it conveys purpose and speed, but perhaps with hindsight shooting without the 1.4 may have offered more crop options?
Agree with Arash's points, did you lighten (lift) the eye as there is some colour noise which is surprising for ISO2000. Overall it does need more tonal range as mentioned, and again, there are many options in achieving that and Globally applied, however I wondered if the darks/shadows have been tweaked, but with the blown whites on the cheek perhaps exposure wasn't quite spot on, hence the overall loss of tonal depth? Are you using the Histogram Mike, which I have to say is just such a joy in the EVF, but I do find you cannot push it so far to the right with ETTR compared to the 1DXMK3.
TFS
Steve
Post Production: It’s ALL about what you do with the tools and not, which brand of tool you use.

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Pretty nice overall. I do like that green water. The pose on the chick is neat.