Eurasian Coots

[Leander Khil]

Nikon D300, 500mm, f7.1 1/125, ISO 200, fill flash

Hi all!
It's been a long time since I used this wonderful forum the last time.
What do you think of this shot?
It's far away from the usual beautiful portraits - how do you like it?
Any critiques welcome!

Thanks for looking, Leander

[Martin Wallis]

Very unusual! I don't know why, but I like it.:) Exposure on birds seems excellent. A little more canvas on right wouldn't hurt.
Cheers

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Welcome to BPN, Leander! Pretty funny and unusual, makes you wonder what the coot in the BG is looking at. :) Exposure control and sharpness look good. I might try to sharpen the bird in the BG a bit. Keep them coming!

Viele Grüße!

[Leander Khil]

Thanks for your replies.
As I try to learn as much as possible, I will directly respond to your suggestions.
If I'd add canvas on the right, how would I best "reconstruct" the missing stone? Or wouldn't you do it anymore in post-processing?
For this image I used masks for the first time, I considered the bird in front with the stone as foreground and all the rest (including the soft bird) as background. I applied noise reduction only to the background for not loosing detail in the front bird.
For sharpening the second bird, would you make another mask only for that bird, or include it with the "foreground mask"? How would you do it?

Please allow me to ask that much questions, eager to learn ;)

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Leander,

You could use the quick select tool in PS to select the bird in the background only. As for the canvas, you could add canvas first and then use the content-aware expansion in CS4, assuming this is what you use.