A group of spoobills were feeding in the shade of some mangroves, except these four were illuminated by a patch of light - the reflections on the water caught my eye and I decided to compose the image with those in mind. As the BG and water in the original RAW are already almost black with very few other elements except the reflections I decided why not go all the way black!! Adjusted the black "levels" slider, then cloned out a few very dark leaves in URC, and a very faint shoreline going across the birds was also eliminated.
Canon 40D + 100-400 @400mm, manual exposure, aperture priority, 1/2000s., f/6.3 (don't know why I didn't stop down more, but luckily because of the fair distance all four birds are sharp), ISO 500, histogram checked with birds exposed to the right, handheld.
Very nice. Good head positions on all four. I esp. like the 2nd from right. The contrast between the birds and the backgrounds really sets them off. This is one I would really like to see bigger, I think the impact would be much greater.
To quote a famous Canadian photographer I know "well seen"
Back in black - Spoonies.
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