Anhinga (male)

[WIlliam Maroldo]

SonyA700~Sony70-400G@400mm~ISO400~F7.1~1/200 sec~manual exposure~tripod~5-18-2010~Brazos Bend State Park, Texas~CS4/Redfield Fractalius
A profile, with the raised crest, worked much better than any normal head angle shot here. Comments and critique welcomed. regards~Bill

[denise ippolito]

Bill, I love the pose and the raised crest. I feel like there is a lot of grain/noise. Did you add it? Very nice details and great eye! I love the simple border-is it 1 pixel white and 1 pixel black?

[Christopher Miller]

Hi Bill, Excellent pose and love the raised crest. Nice details too. I find the wing a bit distracting, might want to try cloning it out. I also might remove the BG noise, though I'm not sure about that. Nice work. :)

[WIlliam Maroldo]

Thanks Denise, Christopher. Denise-used "Canvas Size" ;add 2 pixels to width and height with white, repeated with black.
About the background, and "noise?". I examined the original, which was shot at ISO 400, and there is virtually no noise in the background, and what I considered as "grain" was due completely to the settings in Fractalius, Most of the time I shoot much higher ISOs of 1000-1600 (no tripod as here) and noise is evident in backgrounds that are not high-key. In any case, blurring the background in this image(and not the bird) would be very difficult. It would require selecting (masking) the very narrow upraised feathers, which would be extremely difficult..
Christopher: the wing was included for compositional reasons(balance) which may not have worked too well. regards~Bill

[denise ippolito]

Thanks Bill, I wasn't sure if it was 1 pixel or 2. It looks good together as presented. The grain isn't bothersome to me except where it shows up on the wing.:)

[Mark Fuge]

Nice image and application, Bill.

I agree with the wing. Not that it shouldn't be there, but the amount of it showing is distracting. I would either have put more into the frame or removed it. Personal choice. But ... your image ... your vision. ;)

[Patti Edens]

Bill, I really like the portrait view as you mention and the sharpness of the bill and eye. I love the subtle colors in the background. I wonder if just running one of the noise programs would remove the grain? Although it really doesn't bother me. I couldn't figure out the wing at first - I thought it looked like a cat's paw??? :confused: :o Now I see it.

[WIlliam Maroldo]

Thanks everyone. Good point Mark, I also thought that more of the wing ould have been better, or not at all. Unfortunately there isn't any more in the original, so removal sounds right. Patti, I had serious doubts about removing noise(grain) with noise reduction, but I tried it anyway on the base image, and it did help! Good idea. regards~Bill

[Jackie Schuknecht]

Great details in the feathers Bill and nice portrait. I find the wing a little distracting. Personally the grain does not bother me.