pelicans and cormorant

[Celeste Painter]

For this shot, I was trying to be mindful of the lighting conditions (somewhat harsh), and both the white and the black of the birds without losing either--but I think I've lost the cormorant regardless. any suggestions are appreciated.

gear: 5dm2, 100-400
settings: 190 mm, 1/400 @ f/14, iso 400, -2/3 ev
post processing in lightroom: cropped for composition (to get rid of the nearby tall grasses that I was hiding behind which registered as green fuzz in the image), +recovery, +clarity, adjusted tone curve, sharpening & noise reduction, and I cloned out some of the harsher bits of background

[Ian Cassell]

Hi Celeste. It's tough to get a composition with 2 birds to work well and getting 4 is extremely difficult. I don't think the Cormi adds anything to this grouping (and he's not even looking in your direction). I would start by cloning him out entirely and working on the other grouping. I'm working on my laptop and am not sure about this, but I think you've blown the whites on the backs of the two pelicans on the sides. The one in the middle has no light on his eye, which makes it suboptimal. This makes it difficult to recover the image (although I do like the grouping of the 3 pelicans). This was a valiant attempt at a difficult composition. Do you have any more of the group?

[Celeste Painter]

Thanks -- I do have one that I like much better than this shot (below), but I really wanted the above image to work.

[Ian Cassell]

I know the feeling. I have lots of images which have wound up in the recycle bin that I really wanted to work.! The important thing, I've found, is to try to turn as many of them as possible into learning experiences to be applied to the next opportunity. Your whites are much better controlled on #2 and the composition works far better for me (although I know someone will point out that you're really not supposed to post a second image on a thread).

[Kerry Perkins]

Hi Celeste, that someone would be me. Please post only one image per thread. That is the rule and one of the reasons that we ask that you read and agree to the t&c here. Not only does multiple image posting consume extra bandwidth, but it also makes it difficult to follow a thread. We prefer that images are critiqued on an individual basis.