Pink-footed Geese - C & C please

[Frank Clark]

This was taken at Martin Mere in Lancashire, England on a bright sunny February day. I used a Nikon D80 with Nikkor 80-400 VR lens + Kenko 1.4 TC.
This is the first picture that I have posted and I look forward to your comments.
Thank you.
Frank Clark

[Fabs Forns]

Hey Frank, big welcome to BPN, hope we can help you improve your skills :)

You did great in keeping separation between the Geese, no merging. That gets you good scores. On the other hand, there's a visible halo around the birds from Shadow/Highlight? and they seem to be going away rather that coming towards you. The sky could use a little less saturation.

Hope this helps and whatever you need, don;t hesitate to PM any of us for help!

[Desmond Chan]

Here's what I think:

It would be better if the wing of the bottom goose was not clipped. It looks like there is some white halo surrounding the geese. I think this image could use more sharpening. And, I've never seen geese flying at that angle (or look that way), so I don't know. Just what I see but I could be way off.

[Frank Clark]

Thank you for your comments. I must confess that this formation of geese was tidied-up by cloning out three geese clumped together above the middle top bird. Cropping would have cut out the goose on the top left.
Otherwise this image was unaltered.
How much manipulation is considered acceptable to "improve" an image?
Thank you,
Frank

[Doug Brown]

I must confess that this formation of geese was tidied-up by cloning out three geese clumped together above the middle top bird. How much manipulation is considered acceptable to "improve" an image?

That's a tough question Frank, and I think you'll get a broad spectrum of answers on this forum. If I do substantial work to a photo, I usually mention it in the post. I agree with all of Fabs' excellent points. Welcome to BPN!