Just a Coot (Eurasian Coot)

[Markus Jais]

EOS 7D, 4/500L, tripod.
When I left my home, it rained but when I arrived at this river, the sun came out for about half an hour.
The white part on the head (how is this called in English?) is a little too bright. This was too much for the 7D sensor. I don't mind it too much, as in sunlight, this always looks like almost pure white.

I liked the reflection and the color of the water. I tried to get a low angle.

This is about a 70% crop from the original.

LR2: increased clarity a bit and recovery to 100 (helped a little with the white bill).
CS 4: a little noise reduction and some USM.


Markus

[Ilija Dukovski]

Just great image of a very difficult to exp bird. The HA is excellent,
detail on the black plumage i great, and you actually did great with the exp.
BG color is nice too.
I did a linear burn on the bill and the FRONTAL SHIELD,
Let me know if you think this is better.

[Don Lacy]

Hi Markus, I really like this image the exposure on the coot is perfect along with the HA and the water color compliments the Coot nicely, maybe a little CCW oration but thats about it.

[Stu Bowie]

Difficult characters to expose, but you have brought out the darker plumage nicely. Their white beaks are very difficult too, and Ilija has done a good job. Good HA, and I like the calm water.

[Markus Jais]

Just great image of a very difficult to exp bird. The HA is excellent,
detail on the black plumage i great, and you actually did great with the exp.
BG color is nice too.
I did a linear burn on the bill and the FRONTAL SHIELD,
Let me know if you think this is better.

Hi Ilija,
thanks for your version. Your comments and explanations are always very helpful.
This looks great. I will try a linear burn the next time!

Markus

[Axel Hildebrandt]

I like the mood, head angle and the repost improves it even more. I might crop a bit off the bottom.

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

I like the calmness in the water a lot. Fabulous job with the black details. Head angle perfect with nice eye contact. One more vote for cropping a tad from the bottom. The duplicate reflection is mildly distracting. It can use one more round of NR on the BG IMO( did I just use three acronyms in one sentence :-)