Least Sandpiper

[David Gancarz]

Taken at Shiloh Marsh, Merritt Island NWR, Florida. Nikon D300, Nikkor 300mm f/4 w/1.4 TC, 1/640, f/5.6, ISO 200, 0742 hours. Some blown hightlights, but only a few. Comments welcome. Thanks.

[Randy Stout]

David:

Nice head angle, I like his perch. You mentioned the blown whites. If shot in raw, probably can recover at least some in post processing.

For my personal tastes, the image could be cropped a bit differently. I don't feel the distorted reflection adds much to the image, and would crop up to about where his legs start(in the reflection). This would have the additional benefit of making it a less square crop, which generally tends to be a pretty static crop.

I also think the bird could use some selective sharpening. A slightly lower shooting angle if possible would have helped the intimacy of the image.

Thanks for sharing and keep them coming.

Randy

[Fabs Forns]

David, if you look in the Educational Resources Forum, you'll see PS tutorials on how to save the whites.

Agree with Randy's comments, especially about the additional sharpening.

[David Gancarz]

Thanks for your comments, especially the cropping suggestions. It was shot in raw and I'll try highlight recovery there. I'm not happy with the loss of color fidelity when converting from tiff to jpg. The image is much better looking in PS and LR. ...Yet another area to hone skills (and an enjoyable journey).

[David Gancarz]

Thanks for all your suggestions. Here is a rework of the OP. It is much improved.