A coot pretending to be a fish eagle ...

[IvoZafirov]

Taken at Kerkini Lake, Northern Greece on 24th of February
40D; 400mm; f6,3; 1/1600 iso500; handheld
smart sharpening; quickmask; curves

[Philip Pietri]

Not an easy shot to capture by any means and you did a great job with the timing. On my screen the picture overall is a little bit dull in color and contrast. I might have taken away some of the space on the left of the frame and made more room in front of the bird. Nits are small - this is one heck of an image!

[Jim Poor]

Hi Ivo,

Nice action captured here. I'd wish for a path that goes a little more toward you, but we can't control the birds yet. :D

I took the image into PS for a bit of a boost. I started with a boost in saturation, then curves and moved both ends to where I was getting a little clipping and then backed off. I actually did this on an adjustment layer and blew the beak completely out and then masked the effect away.

Then I took the image to LAB mode and adjusted the A&B channels on both ends to the -100 and 100 points. Switched to the L channel for some selective sharpening. Hope this helps.

EDIT: If you so inclined, you might consider adding some canvass to the right of the frame.

[john crookes]

I like the coot in the repost but the water is too bright and the background is now blown and takes your eyes right to the piers or post where before it was a lot more neutral

maybe a blend of the two images still a great capture that shows

[Jim Poor]

Good point John. Though the BG is not actually blown, (I measured) it is bright compared to the bird. All the same steps would apply just using a selection on the bird to keep the BG from coming up so far.

That selection would be too complicated on my touch pad, but I have to admit that the thought never even crossed my mind.

Good catch.

[Glenn Bartley]

Great action image! It may need some CW rotation and I think if it were mine I would do some cloning on the BG to smooth out the disturbed area.

[john crookes]

I agree that the info shows not blown completly but the human eye can only resolve up to about 246 - 247 on the rgb scale so anything over that appears to us as blown

[Fabs Forns]

Great action, Ivo, and not an easy one to get. The bird is great, the retouching is a personal choice.

[Alfred Forns]

Love the tittle !!!!! Fine action and super feather detail These guys are very difficult

Do like the re-post but can also see the need to remove the distracting lighter reflections A slightly darker bg would go better with the bird Excellent image !!!

[Manos Papadomanolakis]

Great action shot,i like Jim`s rework!

[David Chauvin]

Fantastic action!

[IvoZafirov]

Thank you for the suggestions and the comments!
Jim, thanks for the rework. The coot seems better although the backgroung is a bit too light for me. May be combination of the two pics would be better.