Golden Plover (BIF)

[FourRingCircus]

I'm not a fan of 'spray and pray', but had a bloody quick flock of these guys about my head and I just pointed 1000mm and pressed the shutter.

Can't quite decide if it's for the bin or not, as I didn't have a specific shot in mind at the time - I wasn't even looking through the viewfinder! Just luck I suppose. Even at 1/1600s, I think the ss is still a bit low here.

 

[pooley]

Definitely not one for the bin John, just needs a little more TLC!

Ideally I would have said a faster shutter speed would have helped, but hindsight is a wonderful thing.

I tried a RP with 3 little adjustments - a bit of selective sharpening on the face, I brightened the head and body a touch, then lastly got rid on the halo around the bird by cloning in sky into the halo at a very high magnification and with a small, hard edged brush.

The image is very small file size, so loses quality, my repost is less than 95kb - any reason for that?

I'd be happy to have taken their shot.

Mike

 

[Phil-D]

Firstly, if I'd took the shot John I'd be fairly happy with it, not an easy bird to capture in flight that I'm sure of, so not one for the bin

Mikes edit is certainly an improvement but.........

I cast my mind back to a recent shot of Barn Owl in flight I posted, to quote your own words when I asked if the head looked over-sharpened, your reply was honest and fair but sums this shot up nicely

No!......

But it looks 'un-sharp' everywhere else, possibly as a result of the localised sharpening of the face area only?

As an overall image, I'm afraid it's not really working for me.

I'm guessing that it's one of those shots that you want to be a keeper, because it doesn't come along every day. However........ I can only empathise.

 

[FourRingCircus]

Cheers chaps. Despite your kind words Mike, I don't think this will be making it's way to my wall. It was an impromptu AK47 grab shot taken (literally) from the hip. We agree the shutter speed is too low. Image is originally hosted on Facebook at a size of about 195k (1024 x 768).

@Phil-D - I like that. Although I think the unsharp (wings) are simply down to the shutter speed. Using my own critique against me, whilst perfectly relevant and accurate, is just plain lazy though.

 

[Deleted member 11790]

nice pic