African Black Oystercatcher

[Stu Bowie]

Yet another out my archives. Taken in CapeTown last December. One of my favourate marine birds. My own critique - I wish for more exposure on the OC.

Canon 50D
100-400 @ 400mm
1/1600
F/8.0
ISO 400

Exp Comp +0.33
Hand Held.

[Tony Whitehead]

Lovely pose with the raised foot - bill perfectly parallel to the image plane. Rock perch is great. Agree that more than +0.3EC would have been better. Fill flash with a BB another option to consider.

[David Fletcher]

Good pose with raised foot Stu. Own nit covers it, but great comp. As Tony suggest, some ff may have helped and worth considering next time you're there. Nicely done.

[denise ippolito]

Stuart, I really like the one-footed pose and the rock it is standing on. Great HA. and you nailed the critique. Nice soft blue BG.

[Manos Papadomanolakis]

Lovely pose with the raised foot!

[Arthur Morris]

Aside from the serious underexposure (that did not help the noise in the blacks) there was a pretty good color cast....

[Arthur Morris]

ps: Used Robert O'Toole's Average Blur technique to balance the color. Details in APTATS II.

[Juan Carlos Vindas]

Arthur's repost is an improvement.

Great looking bird and the raised foot a plus. Nice clean BG.

[Stu Bowie]

Thank you all for the feedback and comments.

Artie, thanks for your repost - huge improvement, and I didnt see the colour cast. Thanks a stack.

[Steve Canuel]

Hi Stuart,
Great pose. Bill and eye colors look good. Agree with a little more detail in the plumage but there's a hint visible to my eye.

[Arthur Morris]

Thank you all for the feedback and comments.

Artie, thanks for your repost - huge improvement, and I didn't see the colour cast. Thanks a stack.

YAW. I have an action for the Average Blur Color Balance trick and run it on most images even when I do not see a cast. With this image, the color cast was obvious to me.