Cormorant

[Ricardo Rodriguez]

D700 70-200 +1.4TC (@280), flash, hh
1/640 f/5.6 ISO 400
Processed in PS: crop, levels, cloning, Viveza, Sharpener Pro, Dfine NR

Thanks for looking.

[Dave Mills]

Hi Ricardo, Nice even lighting and sharp. Backround well muted along with good placement in frame.If this were mine I would eliminate the feather on the end of the bill.

[Ricardo Rodriguez]

Thanks, Dave. These guys often have feathers stuck as shown. Because of that, I chose to leave them. I appreciate your comments.

Ricardo

[Alfred Forns]

.... I think they "all" have feathers :) Guessing Anhinga Trail sitting on the railing, might go a tad lower to have the beak clear the green a bit more !!! Could use selective color and increase the neutral and black channel a couple of points !! Like it a lot !!!

[Jeroen Wijnands]

I'd leave that feather, rather characteristic of these birds. I am curious on the flash technique used here.

[Gerald Kelberg]

I like this a lot - placement in the frame, the fine detail of the feathers and the amazing colour of the eye. I too would leave the feather - part of the character.
For what it is worth, I find that these birds extremely camera shy over here - certainly couldn't get this close to one on a boardwalk.

[Harold Davis]

i like this a lot too! nice job! i think i spy a color cast to it. i downloaded it and set the black and white points and it does look better to me like that. try it and see what you think!!

[Lance Peters]

Hi ricardo - like this a lot - love the eye on those guys - I would also leave the feather intact.
Agree with Mr H sharp eyes does seem to be a colour cast present.
Good show :)

[Alfred Forns]

For what it is worth, I find that these birds extremely camera shy over here - certainly couldn't get this close to one on a boardwalk.

.... here we can actually pet them :)

[Mark Young]

Beautiful image. Eye looks great! The composition looks good, as does the bg. Agree about cloning out the feather. I thought it was a mark on my monitor when I first saw it.

[Ricardo Rodriguez]

Hi y'all, thanks for your comments. I detected a color cast in the original and thought I took care of it, but apparently I still left some cast in there. Trying to improve, and have learned a lot already from your critiques, which I truly appreciate.

Ricardo