pelican at night with reflection

[Celeste Painter]

It was too dark out for shooting--pushed my ISO up to 2000 and crossed my fingers. Taken with Canon 5dm2, 100-400 @400mm.

The raw image was dark and grainy, but I'd gotten the detail and reflection so I used a few tools in both Photoshop and Lightroom including a little edge enhancing to bring out the highlights, smooth it out, get rid of grain, correct the colors (was very blue) etc. After all of the editing, the image probably belongs here rather than in one of the other forums. I also cropped, but just slightly (only for composition) and then added some black to the bottom so the reflection wasn't on the edge.

Comments welcome!

[Indranil Sircar]

Hi Celeste, this works as OOTB! I like what you have been able to get here with the processing. The reflection is certainly of interest here. I would have cropped slightly different, if it were mine... I would have given it a bit of space on the left to fly into instead of the bottom. TFS and looking for more

[Cheryl Slechta]

Celeste, great OOTB thinking! I agree with Indranil about more room on the left. I also would remove the shadow on the pelican's head. I hope to see more of your creations

[Mark Fuge]

Very nice save, Celeste. It's a nice image and the coloring adds to the effect in my view.

The only comment I have, is a slight one. I might have tried to put a little more shape into the top of the head in the reflection. It appears that that is where the added black line is. You could crop shape it, if you agreed and so choose. But very nice image in itself.

[denise ippolito]

Celeste, Indranil makes a good suggestion regarding more room on the left. Nice job with the capture in the dark!

[John Storjohann]

Beautiful image; you did a great job making the most of the light and the subject with your handling of the processing. A good suggestion from Indranil, RE leaving more room on the LHS; and I might tone down the bright area just beneath the wing on the left to bring more focus to the reflection directly beneath the bird. Hope to see more from you in OOTB.