Wilson's Plover

[Cathy McEntee]

This plover was taken a couple weeks ago. Would love your C&C.

Nikon D7000 Nikon 300mm with 1.7 tc
ISO 500 f7.1 1/1600
overcast, manual exp

[Jeff Cashdollar]

Cathy,

You are on the right path young Jedi. I like it, what a nice eye and pose - really like this one. Too much negative space. I would crop some of the OOF foreground and maybe move a bit more to the right corner (subject here). Was this HH, detail is alright could be crisper but on balance strong image!!

ps - did you run NR on the background?

KEEP EM COMING

[Ian Cassell]

Cathy,

Very nice! I agree with Jeff about crop of OOF foreground and I would move the bird to the right a bit, but I'm not sure I agree with him about too much negative space above the bird -- I would probably leave that as is or only remove a small amount and put the eye near the ROT position. Nice catchlight in the eye.

Something like this, maybe :

[Jeff Cashdollar]

Ian,

I like the repost, it is just a tad a bit tight IMO, you are on the right track to show case the subject and reduce the distracting foreground elements.

[Bob Miller]

Cathy....I like the repost and would suggest you try to blend the green patch off to the birds RHS......it is a bit distracting to my eye. To blend take the eyedropper tool in PS and sample an area that you like the tone .......then use a soft brush at low opacity ( 10-15%) and paint over the green area until it blends nicely. Hope to see more of your work!

[John Chardine]

Plovers are almost my favourite shorebirds. The eyes are so big, like yours Cathy. I like the soft light. Pose and head angle are excellent. I can see some softness in the feathers under the eye for example, and wonder of you ran any noise reduction on the bird itself. Was there any way to extract some detail in that dark eye with some dodging?

[gary ellwein]

Well done Cathy. I like the low angle. Whites are under control. The repost is a bit tight on the bottom. Agree with Bob about the green patch. Consider some selective noise reduction on the bg. Overall a very pleasing image.

Gary

[Cathy McEntee]

Thanks all for your compliments and great advice. I worked on the raw file again and put it through shadows and highlights, cloned out the green spot and used the burn tool around the eyes. Hope it looks a bit better. John - I agree with plovers being a favorite!