Turnstones

[Jonathan Ashton]

These were taken ata local beach at high tide. I smoothed out the background a little, i decided to leave the OOF bird in the bottom right corner I would be interested to see what alternatives may be suggested to improve presentation, so as usual all C & C most welcome.

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Very different and well seen. Little room below would have been nice, I think.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Tell me this isn't from your backyard!!

I like the overall feel to the image. Nice resting poses and I like how they are going up on an angle. The BG blur looks good, just be careful on the areas close to the birds as the top one shows evidence of PP work just above its head. Had you been able to go a wee bit higher and/or left the middle bird's head wcould have cleared the top one's legs. I also agree with a bit more room below and right, to give the corner bird's head more space to the edge. One more thing...the whites, although not blown, would aesthetically benefit from a bit of toning down or detail recovery. Well seen!

[Todd Frost]

Nicely seen Jonathan. I like the diagonal line with the rock. Comp wise I agree a bit more below would be nice, would also take a bit off the top. Pitty on the lower right bird in bg. Daniel has made a good suggestion re: the whites as well.
TFS
Todd

[Randy Stout]

Jonathan;

Be sure to include your camera/lens and post details. Really helps the critiques.

Good points from Daniel and Todd.

I would prefer a bit less on top and no bird in RLC.

The overall image design is really neat, and the rock to the left with dark splotches from water is quite interesting.

Cheers

Randy

[Marina Scarr]

My first impression was that I really liked where you were going with this capture. That being said, I do find the UL shadow a bit distracting. Agree on a tad more room at the bottom. I would definitely be out there trying this again b/c you are on to something.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Thank you for the feed back, here is the data and I have attached a rework baring in mind your comments. I think I have made a pig's ear of the white plumage, I tried layers with linear burn and also tried Shadows/Highlights, the bright areas seem to go grey as soon as I modify them regardless of method I used.
Camera Model Canon EOS 7D
Shooting Mode Aperture-Priority AE
Tv( Shutter Speed ) 1/1000
Av( Aperture Value ) 7.1
Metering Mode Evaluative Metering
Exposure Compensation 0
ISO Speed 400
Lens EF500mm f/4L IS USM
Image Quality RAW
Flash Off
FE lock OFF
White Balance Mode Auto
AF Mode AI Servo AF
AF area select mode Manual selection
Picture Style Standard

I appreciate that raw is raw but I wonder if it would be a good idea to use a different camera profile - eg neutral and then perhaps the whites would not be so fully exposed??

[Marina Scarr]

The repost for me is a marked improvement in terms of composition.