I got this shot at the Merced NWR using my D500, Nikon 2-500 lens, Nikon 1.4 TC, 1/3200th, f/8.0, ISO 560, 700mm, hand held, AI Clear
Dave, you have caught a very good pose of this bird and perfect light, too. I think there is a little bit of a blue cast in the bird that makes it looks steel-y if you know what I mean. I will also consider selecting the background and reduce contrast there.
Hi David, to my eye this is one fine image. The lighting is superb. I blew it up and it looks sharp to me. No evidence of anything strange going on. Nice simple background. Looks like a wall hanger to me!
Hi Dave. I’m seeing what Adhika is saying about the color of the Yellowlegs, though that could be the light you had. Very good detail and pose. There are two little water drop specular highlights-one just over the head and the other even with the head and an inch from the left edge. A dab with the spot healing brush would fix them, though you have to watch out for the one over the head. Whenit’s that close, sometimes it picks up the head to fill in the area. If it does, a touch of cloning would do the trick.
Image quality of the bird is fantastic. I feel like I’ve seen a noticeable uptick in the sharpness and detail of your shots lately, so kudos! I love the pose and the light. I also agree that there is a slight blue cast to the bird. The easiest way (that I know of) to get rid of it is to select the bird in Photoshop, select a hue/saturation layer, select “blue” from the master drop-down menu, and reduce the saturation. You could also just reduce the blue in the entire image, but it would take it out of the water as well, which you don’t want. Otherwise, the BG is pretty busy. Ideally, the bird would have been further from it.
