James Shadle knows how to position people for bird photography opportunities. This spoon bill flew over us on his pontoon boat late on a recent Sunday afternoon. Good thing the boat's steering cables were broken or we would have missed the opportunity.
Canon EOS 50D
Canon 100-400mm lens at 220mm
Manual mode
ISO: 400
Aperture: 8
Shutter: 1/1600
Post production included NIK Color Efex Pro polarization and tonal contrast.
Hi James, While I like the unique wing position there are several problems: 1-the image is over-saturated, both the pinks and the sky that is also too dark. 2-the uneven light is problematic at best: there are ways to reduce the problem including lightening the dark areas and darkening the brighter areas and also using a reverse S-curve. I think that by starting from scratch you could improve this one a lot.
And yes, Mr. Shadle is the bomb (and a great friend and business partner).
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BIRDS AS ART Online Store: we will not sell you junk. 35 years of long lens experience. Please e-mail with gear questions.
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Arite hit the high points in his critique, but the eye does not look sharp at all to me. I think the plane of focus was anterior to the eye, as the tip of the bill is pretty sharp, as is the torso.
I went back to the base image and made sure no additional saturation made its way into the image. I isolated the bird and adjusted the curves as suggested. The sunlight on the small portion of the wing is a challenge. Randy was correct about the eye. My solution was to take an eye from another spoonbill. The adjusted image is the result.
Alafia River Spoonbill
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