Avocet in the clear

[Ben_Sadd]

An avocet shot one morning this last spring on the Dutch island of Texel.

I also have a version with the reflection, but I thought I would post this for now.

C&C welcome.

7D
500mm +1.4TC
ISO 800
Manaul
1/1000
f/8

[Daniel Cadieux]

Neat bird, good job with the exposure. Good details in the plumage. I wouldn't mind more room above, and the water to be a little bit bluer (easy to tweak in "Selective Color"). I also see some dark halos along the back and tail...did you perhaps use the burn tool with some touched-up areas spreading into the BG?

[Ben_Sadd]

Thanks Daniel. It would be pretty easy to add some canvas above and tweak the blue.

I see what you mean about the dark patches, but I did not burn there. Indeed, I went back to the raw and they also appear there. Not sure what it may be.

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

excellent exposure. beautiful bird, shooting and subject angle are pretty good.

agree that room above will help. it always gets tricky with such long legged birds in water. You made a good choice in the field as adding canvas below would be more difficult than above.

[Dan Busby]

Very nice image of a beautiful bird. Nice exposure and detail. I like the feathers in the beak. Agree with more room above and colour tweak. There seems to be a dust spot in front of the bird, about half way to the left side at the level of the top of the legs.

[Ben_Sadd]

Thanks Kaustubh and Dan.

Good spot Dan. Not a dust spot, but an oof small object on that water that I will still remove.

[Cheryl Arena Molennor]

Nice soft light good work on the whites and I love the blue color of the water ripple. Good eye Daniel those spots are strange. Did you maybe use the adjustment tool in raw that maybe bled over?

[Ben_Sadd]

Thanks again. Here is a repost with a bit more space.

Still can't find the source of the dark areas. No sliders that might do this were touched in ACR. If I had a bit more time I would try and clean it up manually, but for now I have to rush to work.

[arash_hazeghi]

excellent light with a nice low angle, good exposure too

[Robert Holguin]

Beautiful image. Love the pose, exposed very well, and the repost is a lot better.
Well done.

[Arthur Morris]

Love the bird and an overall quality image. Why not a vertical capture?

[Ben_Sadd]

Thank you to all.

Artie, I also have a vertical shot of this, I just decided to post the horizontal here.