Great Blue from Ding Darling to start the year

[John Hawkins]

This was taken at JN "Ding" Darling wildlife Refuge on Sanibel, FL. Sunday. Data - f/6.3, 1/1250, 0ev, ISO400, 500mm, Better Beamer Flash. I used my Sony A700 with Sigma 50-500 on tripod. Thanks for looking, John

[Gus Cobos]

Hi John,
I like the capture and close up pose. You have good feather details. The image looks a little on the flat side. Would suggest setting a black and white point and boosting the saturation and contrast just a tad. Looking forward to your next one...:cool:

[Lance Peters]

Hi john - sound advice from Gus - think it will improve it a lot. A bit of NR on the background as well.
TFS

[Colin Knight]

Gus, out of curiosity, are you talking about the "S" curve contrast technique?

Colin

[Alfred Forns]

Hi Colin In CS4 I would try the pre-set curves, might be surprised how good they work !! For contrast increase you will end up with an S type curve. Manually can pull the bottom and push the top a bit but its so much easier (in CS4) just clicking and dragging on the image the area you want, one of the new features I really like !!

btw another way to increase contrast (slightly) is with selective color, just add a few points to the neutral and black !! Use it all the time !!!