Little Grebe

[Dudley Watson]

Captured in early light at Rietvlei near Pretoria. Processed in CS5and NX2
The details were
D3 with 500mm f4 and 1.4 TC
F7.1
s/s 1/2000
ISO 1800
exp comp -1/3

[Willem Verboom]

A nice funly fellow you show us here Great sharpness and dito reflection and that's makes the picture totally nice too look at.

Willem

[Daniel Cadieux]

Nice and sharp, and good reflection. I like the "just out of the water" look:). I'd personaly get rid of the extra ripples in the top part of the image (especially the one skimming along the top edge), and would only run NR on the water...the subject and especially the reflection seem smoothed out by this. A bluish cast on the plumage could ne neutralized too. Fun image!

[Arthur Morris]

This is very sweet and very well done. EXP and SH right on. Light from the rear handled well in part due to a perfect head angle. REFL is great. Yes to cropping that wake from the upper left.

Lightening the front of the face just a bit would likely improve it. And I just love that raised fluffy butt.

[Rob Miner]

Hey Dudley, The picture on many levels shows merit. In this critique section, we are supposed to give you our insights as to what may have been used to make the picture better. I would like to seen this picture shot with a flash and BetterBeamer to light up the near side of the bird ever so slightly.

Rob....................

[Xavier Maessen]

This is a very nice picture. I totally agree with Daniel Cadieux' suggestions. Maybe I would have liked a somewhat lower shooting angle, more at the level of the grebe.
Also, it seems the D3 sensor needs some cleaning, there is a dust spot near the left frame, just under the ripples.

Well done!

Xavier

[Dudley Watson]

Thanks for your valuable input. I have adjusted and attah revised image

[Arthur Morris]

Not sure what you did and hard to see small differences when scrolling but I am pretty sure that I like the original better. Heck, I liked if from the start :)