Caught this guy at the top of his stretch a few days ago. It was in the morning of a clear day. How can I photograph a coot and not blow out its beak? Or, can I bring that feature to a "realistic" look via post processing? I'm not having much luck with that . . .
hi wendall, beautiful bird with a nice wingflap. i have found that it is tough, or impossible, to fix the blown beak. softer light will help this situation. for this image, i would like to have a better head angle to. the bird is looking a little too far away. also looks like the focal point was just below the wings instead of on the eye.
Agree with Harold, softer less contrasty light will help retain beak detail.
Also I would suggest going into manual mode in a situation like this. Dark water and a dark bird will mean toasted highlights. Manual settings will help you preserve the highlights and keep you black bird from turning a washed out gray.
Also it looks like you used flash right? Would help to be in manual power also.
Cute Coot
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