Great northern diver

[michael]

Canon 1d mk2, Canon 500mm f4.0

ISO 400, f5.6, 1/200

manual, incident light metering

I do not think the name "Common Loon" does justice to this beautiful bird, I prefer its english name "Great Northern Diver"

[Randy Stout]

Michael:

I think "uncommon loon" would be more appropriate.

Lovely colors here, sharp, nice display of green sheen, excellent eye.

Might consider a slight crop up from bottom, just to level above the lowest black reflection.

Were you in a boat? Curious about your setup, as I am often in search of loons.

Randy

[Stu Bowie]

Super pose Michael, and I like the HA. You have exposed the colours very well, apart from the white plumage on the chest - it looks slightly hot. I agree with Randy cropping some off the bottom will work, as the reflection doesnt add to the image, and I would also consider taking a bit off the RHS too.

[Manos Papadomanolakis]

beautiful pose/colors!!!

[David Fletcher]

This is very nice Michael. Lovely comp and low viewpoint. Only thought being the whites are hot, showing 253-254, and may be worth applying the recovery slider in ACR if you haven't tried it already. Took the liberty of applying a luminosity sharpen:

selection on bg.>inverse>contract 1px> three round sof 50%, 0.3 & 4> flatten> 1 round of 10%, 20 & 4. Bit more of smart sharpen a 100%, 0.9> (seems to have taken it ok), and a tad burning on the bright spot, although recovery on a raw file will be best.

[michael]

Thank you for your helpful comments, I agree re the crop and also the white on the chest does look blown, although on my monitor you could see feint detail on the chest.

I will give the luminosity sharpen a try as it does seem to improve the image.

Michael

[Doug Brown]

Gorgeous plumage and water color. Nice low angle. Definitely benefited from additional sharpening, and I like the ideas for cropping that have been suggested.

[Austin Thomas]

Hi Michael, I like the BKGR and the composition as it is. I think it could stand a little more sharpening.

Thanks for sharing

Austin

[Daniel Cadieux]

...also the white on the chest does look blown, although on my monitor you could see feint detail on the chest.

In this situation, sometimes the burn tool works well. Set it to midtones (even if you are working on the white breast as you don't want to darken those too much) and to 6-8% exposure. It may take two passes but this often brings out detail that is already faintly present without making the whites muddy.

[Chris Kotze]

Super angle and such lovely colours, well captured

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

What a great image Michael. I like Dave's repost with the sharpening. Congrats and I agree about cropping from the bottom.

[Harshad Barve]

Incrediable image , David's repost is lovely
TFS

[Simon Bennett]

Excellent capture - I like the pose, eye contact and green reflection in the water.