Black Footed albatross portrait- Midway Atoll

[Steve Bein]

The blue background is the wonderful color which surrounds the islands at Midway Atoll. Cropped from the original, I removed a few sand flecks on the bill. The location is called Rusty Bucket on Sand Island, Midway Atoll. There were a few of the black footed albatross sitting where the light blue of the sea could be used as a background. I credit Artie for the suggestion. I shoot with large JPG and raw. This was processed from the jpg. Thanks.
7D, 100-400-IS @400mm
1/1000 sec, f/11
Mode: Av
Metering: Spot
ISO: 400

[Myer Bornstein]

Right on nice BG sharp eye nice catch light

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Loved the basic composition. power of the rule-of-thirds. so balanced. Water color is "cool". Bird does not look oversharpened but I see some halo. On such BG, its better to back down on sharpness value in RAW conversion and then sharpen just the bird( without the edges) in PP. learnt that from gulls-against-sky photos that I took.

[Gary Dumer]

Nice Sharp Image, Ditto Halo and BG a bit Blotchy

[Fabs Forns]

Perfect head angle and great detail. Halo and noise already covered. Just a little TLC in the p/p and you got a big winner.

[Grace Scalzo]

Such an incredible bird, nicely photographed by you. I love the dramatic color palette.

[Axel Hildebrandt]

I like the light, angle, and eye contact. Adding to the other comments, I might crop a bit off the left.

[Ofer Levy]

Very nice shot! Great light, detail and pose. I don't see such a noticeable sharpening halo. Don't see much noise either. Would crop a bit tighter off the top and left.