Pastel Pallet

[Bill Holsten]

Male Black-necked Stilt photographed early yesterday AM at San Elijo Lagoon.

1D Mk IV, 300mm + 2X, ISO 400, f/7.1, 1/2500", hand held

C & C welcome and encouraged,
Bill

[James Fuller]

Sweet reflection and I like the stilts angle in the frame.

[arash_hazeghi]

I like the reflection but the drawback is the steep angle. Stilt looks a bit soft to me and wish you could get more light on the blacks. they look blocked as presented. TFS

[Bill Holsten]

Aresh,

Thanks for the well-considered comments. I agree the steep angle is a drawback. It would have been much better had the bird been leaning forward (as stilts frequently do) to get a nice angle between the legs and the reflected legs. It is a bit soft, but further sharpening would add too much noise. In this repost I have teased more detail, in the blacks, out of the original image in LightRoom. This is an area that I have a philosophical problem with. The mid-tones, that I teased out, are not visible to the naked eye in real life. How far do I want to go to make a pretty picture, when it comes at the expense of reality? I guess we each have to answer that for ourselves.

Bill