Pelican in flight

[Bhushan Dalvi]

This picture was taken in evening light on the Labor Day weekend.

Device: Nikon D90
Lens: VR 70-300mm F/4.5-5.6G
Focal Length: 220mm
Focus Mode: AF-C
AF-Area Mode: Dynamic, 3D/Wide
VR: ON
Exposure
Aperture: F/5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/1600s
Exposure Mode: Manual
Exposure Comp.: 0EV
Metering: Matrix
ISO Sensitivity: ISO 200


I leveled the horizon and cloned couple of small bird in the off area in NX2.

Let me know what you think.
Thanks for looking.
Bhushan

[Gary Jones]

This is quite different to the Pelicans we get here - we mainly get the pink backed.

Was this a big crop? IMHO you seem to ahve lost some iq on the head - would be nice to see the eyes more.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Nice timing, I agree perhaps a little more work on the head would bring out more detail, (levels/contrast/curves) depending upon how much the image was cropped perhaps the bird could be a little larger in the frame I would also consider brushing over the base of the image to make the background more uniform.

[Daniel Cadieux]

I like the bird's size in the frame...if anything I wouldn't mind a bit more room around it. It is the overall size of the posted image I'd like to see bigger and I'm sure the deatils would look betterposted bigger;) (you are allowed up o 1024 pixels wide, just be sure to stay under 200kb). I like the pose, we can see this guy is likely just a bout to start a dive.

[Chris van Rooyen]

Lovely posture and light! I would remove the white spot in the right hand corner (?)

[Bhushan Dalvi]

This is quite different to the Pelicans we get here - we mainly get the pink backed.

Was this a big crop? IMHO you seem to ahve lost some iq on the head - would be nice to see the eyes more.

Gary, these guys look very different in their breeding plumage in Spring. This is actually not a big crop. I just adjusted the horizon on the raw image.

[Bhushan Dalvi]

Nice timing, I agree perhaps a little more work on the head would bring out more detail, (levels/contrast/curves) depending upon how much the image was cropped perhaps the bird could be a little larger in the frame I would also consider brushing over the base of the image to make the background more uniform.

Thanks Jonathan. I did not crop the image other than leveling the horizon. Cropping it more I believe will take away the flying space for the peli. I will work on clearing up the background.

[Bhushan Dalvi]

I like the bird's size in the frame...if anything I wouldn't mind a bit more room around it. It is the overall size of the posted image I'd like to see bigger and I'm sure the deatils would look betterposted bigger;) (you are allowed up o 1024 pixels wide, just be sure to stay under 200kb). I like the pose, we can see this guy is likely just a bout to start a dive.

Thank you Daniel. You are right this guy was just about to start the dive. I have that picture coming up next ;) if you guys are not already bored with pelicans.

[Bhushan Dalvi]

Lovely posture and light! I would remove the white spot in the right hand corner (?)

Thanks a lot Chris. I will work on the background. It was the surf in the water which caused that. I just left it alone thinking will look more real.