Black-Bellied Plover Bowing

[Joerg Rockenberger]

The Black-Bellied Plover was photographed in Nov '07 at Seacliff Beach south of Santa Cruz, CA, in early morning light.

Canon 40D, 400F5.6, 1/2000s, F6.3, ISO-400, EC 0, Eval Metering

I am wondering if I should have stopped down a bit to get more DOF. Thoughts?

Thanks for looking & commenting! JR

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Very nice pose, angle and light. I would give it more space and do a bit CW rotation. Since the shutter speed was high you could have stopped down a bit more but it is not a major issue in my opinion.

[Joerg Rockenberger]

Axel,

Thank you for the comment. Would you suggest to CW rotate all the way such that the brown/blue boundary becomes the horizon?

Thanks, JR

[Ed Vatza]

Far be it for me to speak for Axel but I think that is what he means. That is a comment I have gotten on several occasions here and elsewhere when I post an image with the shoreline at an angle. That should be a pretty easy fix. Try it and see if YOU like it.

[Maxis Gamez]

Hi John,

Excellent pose and light. I think you need to fix the horizon and whatever is right in front of you beak is a little distracting but nothing mayor!

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Axel,

Thank you for the comment. Would you suggest to CW rotate all the way such that the brown/blue boundary becomes the horizon?

Thanks, JR

That could be a little too much. I looked at the part of sand that is in focus. You could try if it looks wrong if the blue/brown line is horizontal. If so then go by the in focus sand.

[Joerg Rockenberger]

Thank you all for the good advice! I tried to take the transition to the blue background as a horizon and gave it more space. IMO there is now too much on the left side but I don't have more canvas to the right.

Then, I made an attempt at cloning out the leave/stone in front of the plovers beak. Please bear with me as I stink at PP.

Let me know what you think! Big Thanks, JR

[Axel Hildebrandt]

I think you rotated a little bit too much. Maybe 0.5 CCW now. :) I would crop a bit off the bottom. I liked the tighter crop a bit better.

[Daniel Cadieux]

A bit too aggressive on the rotation :-) Glad the OOF object near the bill has been cloned out though. Just a bit off the bottom of the repost would be ideal.

[Judy Lynn Malloch]

Great pose and detail and a big improvement to have removed whatever was next to the beak and the CW rotation definitely will strengthen the image. Thanks for sharing John

[joel quenneville]

The rotation is a good improvement. I might add a little more room above the tail. Otherwise, I think that this is great!

[Emil Martinec]

DOF is fine, if anything I would have gone to ISO 200 to improve IQ, as SS is more than adequate. As far as rotation, I like the original, one should realize that this is a beach scene and beaches slope up from the water (duh!). Framing, eye contact, and low angle are the strengths of this image IMO.

[Doug Brown]

DOF is fine, if anything I would have gone to ISO 200 to improve IQ, as SS is more than adequate.

Do you really feel that IQ is improved visibly when dropping ISO 400 to 200 on a 40D? When shooting birds, I rarely drop my ISO below 400 because I feel like there is almost no visible noise and I may need the extra SS due to changing light or action.