Does this work?

[Aidan Briggs]

A Long-Billed Curlew flapping after a bath. I clipped the wing-tip in the original, so I decided to crop it tight. I think it works pretty well, but would like to hear your opinions.

50D, 100-400 at 400mm
1/1000 sec, f/5.6, ISO 640
Hanheld

[Fabs Forns]

It works for me, but that's not saying much since I'm a free thinker :)
I may crop the wing a bit more still and go back in the sharpening, wet birds are a pain to sharpen correctly.

Love the movement in the front wing, yes!

[Aidan Briggs]

Thanks Fabs, I agree that the wet belly feathers look a tad over-sharpened.

[Jackie Schuknecht]

I think it works Aidan, and I really like the shot. Have to agree with Fabs and would crop even more from the left. (Cut don't clip, sound familiar?):)

[Manjesh Lingamurthy]

Crop looks good. Well exposed. Nice action with wing motion and water droplets.

[Paul Lagasi]

I like it Aidan, the water drops in the air give it a sense of motion, crappy monitor here can't comment on much else.
Personally since I like the challenge, I'd try to rebuild the wing tips.

[Judy Lynn Malloch]

Beautiful action captured here with excellent detail and sharpness were it counts. The low angle is a real bonus !! Thanks for sharing.

[Gail Spitler]

I love it. It works for me because of the head, eye and bill being sharp; the wing in front is definitely blurred by action, and the flying water drops. And I love the soggy underbelly. For what it's worth, I wouldn't crop it more.

Cheers
Gail

[Aidan Briggs]

Thanks all. I agree with Gail on the crop, I like it as it is and wouldn't crop it tighter.

[Markus Jais]

I wouldn't crop it either. It works very well for me as presented. Great action and motion blue in the wings. The water drops are a wonderful bonus.

Markus

[Paul Lagasi]

Hope its ok Aidan, I wanted to give it a shot at rebuilding the wing tips...love the challenge...didn't take long, just getting everything in proportion is tough part..left it as a slight pano..Hope you like it.

[Joe Senzatimore]

Re-worked image works very well. The original was good as well as the important parts were sharp. I think it was worth the effort to redo it.

[Dave Leroy]

My preference is for the reworked image. The composition seems better to me, and a nice job done.
I am not sure why the belly feathers look oversharpened, other than they may distract from the head?
Nice action shot and love the low angle.
Dave

[Desmond Chan]

Paul's re-post works very well for me. Too bad about the clipped wing in the original.

[Aidan Briggs]

Wow Paul, the repost is great. Would you mind explaining how you did that?

Thanks!

[Paul Lagasi]

Hi Aidan, not much to tell. Its all done with the cloning tool:
1: Added canvas
2: cloned in sky, water (which I could have done a much better job with), copied and saved your name
3: I continually use smaller brush size until I get the image, the way I want
4: I stretch the wingtips, taking care to follow the right angles
5: I use the clone brush (adjusting opacity and flow) to shape the wingtips...sometimes I use a bird guide to help me get the colors and shape right
6: keep playing with it until it looks right...Biggest thing..take your time...when you get a section right save it as a,b,c,d, etc so if you get to a place where it starts looking bad you don't have to go back to the beginning
Hope this helps...
Sometimes depending on opposite wing position (in this case wasn't possible), I can copy other wing then use transform tool to place and size it...when you have a good image to start with it really helps...