Grebe

What technical feedback would you like if any? Any

What artistic feedback would you like if any? Any. Cropping choice?

Pertinent technical details or techniques:

Here’s a shot I got of a Pied-billed Grebe landing. I particularly like the water slicing pattern on this. D500, Nikon 200-500 lens, hand held, 1/1000th, f 5.6, 500mm, ISO 6400, AI Clear, cropped to 2505 x 1800

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Nice action shot, Dave! I love the bow wave and trough! Very good exposure and detail also.

Hi Dave,
Really like the landing action captured here with the bird slicing through the water as you mention. Nice look at the eye even though the bird is moving away from us. I like the simplicity of the background and painterly feel. Details on the bird look slightly muted to me like noise reduction was run on the entire image.

Guilty, Allen. The original was pretty noisy and I decided that the real smooth look was better than the noise. The action freeze made it worth keeping, and massaging :wink:

Really a nice capture of the grebe landing with the water trough and wake. It does have a painterly feel, which I like. Agree it’s a keeper.

Background perfect
Head position not ideal - but still very interesting
Some of the sharpness may be lost from the crop as well as the noise reduction

I would try selecting the subject and infuse some magic by way of contrast, a little dehaze decreasing the saturation and may be increasing the shadows some - have to play woith that

What I also like is the space you have given the grebe