Resident Canadian Goose

[Hazel Grant]

One of a mated pair at a reserve nearby.

Late afternoon, manual, hand held, 1/1600,f8, iso 400, 300mm. full frame, slight curves adjust plus high pass and slight blur to the water background.

[John Chardine]

Hi Hazel- Nice idea here with the upper body of the bird acting as a platform for the neck and head. On my monitor the bird looks a little dark- I tried opening up the image with the middle slider in Levels and it worked well. Right now the bird is looking into the short side of the image so I would recrop if you can to add more space at the right or add canvas. It looks like you might have tried this already (there's some sharp, straight vertical edges on the right hand side) but you need to add more.

[Dawn Miller]

I really like the expression and the way the eye is caught. Perhaps the catch light could be brightened? I feel that the bird's neck and head need to be brightened. The white patch on the jaw should be as white as the lower body. I would not let the background come up though. Could you crop a little off the top? It might emphasize the eye. Great shot! Have you photographed the pair?

[Hazel Grant]

I will work on your suggestions. Thanks. But I don't know what you mean by not letting the background come up through. On my monitor I can't see a place where it comes through the goose, if that's what you mean. I did try to get the pair but not a great shot yet. Will work on going back there later.

[Kerry Perkins]

Hi Hazel. What Dawn was saying is that the bird could be lightened but not let the background get brighter ("I would not let the background come up though"). You would select the bird and make a new layer, then adjust levels on just that layer, letting the background stay the same brightness as it is.

[Hazel Grant]

thanks for explaining. I'll work on this and get it back up soon.

[WIlliam Maroldo]

Hazel; the image is uderexposed, whites are gray, and much of the neck has no detail, reads R=0/G=0/B=0, and recovery of detail in underexposed parts of this image IMO is not possible. The camera recorded nothing or very little in those areas. Brightening an underexposed image results in digital noise, and will not increase detail. Have you looked at the histogram?
Best bet is to expose so that the camera histogram peaks as far to the right as possible without clipping the highlights, then lower exposure if needed in post. That way you can have detail in the dark parts of the image.
Finding another Canada goose shouldn't be too difficult, so next time avoid underexposure.
regards~Bill