Neusiedler See National Park #3: Black-tailed Godwit

[Markus Jais]

I love Black-tailed Godwits. They are extremely beautiful. Unfortunately they have shown a steep decline in many European countries during the last decades due to habitat loss and other threats.

This image was taken from a car.
EOS 7D, 4/500 + 1.4x, ISO 500, f6.3, 1/320.
slight crop from left and top and a bit at the bottom to get rid of some OOF vegetation.

LR2: slight increase in exposure, vibrance and clarity.
CS4: some sharpening. three rounds with amount 200 and radius 0.2

Markus

[Jonathan Ashton]

Very pleasing image, composition and colours look good, I know it can be irritating for me to suggest, because when you take an image you get what you got, but do you have a similar image with just a small gap between the head/neck and the right wing, I think it would look even better.:)

[Ofer Levy]

I like this a lot! Great pose and BG. Here is a repost with some more PS work - added canvas to the bottom and recropped, boost in colour saturation and contrast, slight CW rotation. Please let me know what you think.
Cheers,
Ofer

[Markus Jais]

@Jonathan: I don't have an image with a little gap, unfortunately

@Ofer. Thanks for your repost. This is great. I like it a lot.

Markus

[thijs broekkamp]

Indeed there are beautifull birds. Lovely image, repost even better!

[Axel Hildebrandt]

I like the soft light, calm water and head angle. I like the composition of Ofer's repost and think both versions work as for color and saturation.

Markus, do you use Viveza? This might help a lot with images like this one.

[Lorant Voros]

I like both crops, but the vertical version works better for me. Overall a very nice image with nice HA and a great pose. Light is great and I love how the water melts together with the BG. Very well done.

[Markus Jais]

Axel, thanks for the tip. I do not yet use Viveza (Never heard of it so far).
I looked at their website. Looks interesting, I might give it a try. But first I will improve my PS skills a lot so I can see if I really need it.

Markus

[Gary Esman]

Excellent pose, love the browns on the neck! great image!

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Axel, thanks for the tip. I do not yet use Viveza (Never heard of it so far).
I looked at their website. Looks interesting, I might give it a try. But first I will improve my PS skills a lot so I can see if I really need it.

Markus

It is a Photoshop plugin and I think they have a trial version. It is definitely worth checking out.

[Stu Bowie]

Markus, good pose with the upturned wings, and good angle too. In your OP, if you moved him back to the right a little, it would work too.