Afternoon Reflection

[Bob Decker]

A little beach time this afternoon near sunset. Canon 40D, ISO 800, f/9.0, 1/500, EV +1. RAW conversion via CS3 ACR with tweaks to Clarity, Vibrance and Saturation + a tad bit of sharpening. In PS select sharpening on bird, Despeckle and Reduce noise on BG... Ran through Noiseware then brought back into PS for a bit of warming and to insure color space is sRGB.

[Lance Peters]

hi bob - Sweet light and lovely sharp details on the bird.
Techs look good, BG is a little distracting - Might have gone for a vertical crop to eliminate some of the BG and place more emphasis on the bird. My eyes are drawn to the patterns formed in the BG.
Keep em coming :)

[Alfred Forns]

Hi Bob Different and interesting image From the tech point would suggest opening the lens wide open so you could have enough shutter speed and lower the ISO !! Usually go wide open with this conditions. Exposure wise maybe one third less, could select the top of the bird and multiply for obtaining detail in that area !!!

[Bob Decker]

Thanks Alfred. My experience has been that this lens gets very, very soft if I go wide open. I have been playing with it a bit to see if I can get a bit more open than f/8.0 with it and still have the images hold up. In this case sun was setting quickly, birds were scurrying around quickly and I just didn't think to try it.

Lance, I have a similar image as a vertical crop but liked this one better. I enjoy a bit of environment in an image sometimes.

Thanks all.

[Jackie Schuknecht]

Beautiful image Bob. The light is wonderful. What about a crop from the top, and a bit more contrast on the bird to make it pop more. Really like this image.

[Bob Decker]

Hi Jackie. Something like this? I cropped a bit off the top, and enough to move the bird into the upper 3rd intersect... which put the reflection in the lower 3rd intersect. Then I selected the bird and boosted the contrast a bit... wasn't satisfied... applied shadow/highlight.