Black-bellied Plover

[Maureen Allen]

Early morning at Ft. Island Beach, Crystal River FL

Nikon D300
200-400mm f/4 +1.4 TC @ 550mm
ISO 800
f/8
1/2000

ACR and CS5, sharpening and background noise reduction

Comments and suggestions appreciated!

[John Chardine]

Nicely done Maureen. Great pose, walking action and head angle. Camera angle is nice a low and the BG is great. The only thing I would suggest is to darken the midtones a little with the Levels slider- middle one to the right some.

[Maureen Allen]

With midtones darkened

[John Chardine]

Excellent! Could even go a little further but this is fine Maureen.

[Maureen Allen]

John, thank you so much for all of the wonderful feedback/suggestions you've given me. I know I have a long way to go, but I'm feeling more confident and I know I'm learning!

[Thanaboon Jearkjirm]

I like the re-post, looking good. Love the walking pose, the HA, sharpness, details and composition in this one. I might run a round NR just on the background.

[Myer Bornstein]

The repost is definitely better, but I agree the feathers on the bird could be darker. The BBP up here in Massachusetts are darker.

[Maureen Allen]

Thank you for the suggestions. I'll run another round of noise reduction on this.

Myer, these birds are darker when they first arrive in FL, but quickly lighten. When I photographed them three weeks ago, many still had some black on their chests and necks and quite dark feathers. While I definitely agree that the OP was too light, to my eye the repost is a fairly accurate representation of their current plumage.

[Eric Patdu]

I like to colors on the re-post. Nice photo Maureen. :)

[Julie Kenward]

Nicely done, Maureen! One other very small thing would be to try to even out the dark shadow on his beak a bit. You could either probably get the lighter area to be darker rather than the other way around...either the clone tool would work or you could sample the dark area with the eye dropper tool, then grab a soft brush and "paint" the lighter area to match the darker. Try 30-50% opacity and it should blend right in.

[Maureen Allen]

Nicely done, Maureen! One other very small thing would be to try to even out the dark shadow on his beak a bit. You could either probably get the lighter area to be darker rather than the other way around...either the clone tool would work or you could sample the dark area with the eye dropper tool, then grab a soft brush and "paint" the lighter area to match the darker. Try 30-50% opacity and it should blend right in.

Thanks much, Julie. I'll give it a try.