Motif: Red-necked Grebe, Soft Yellow Background

Hi Heather,
Really nice image. I love the yellow reflection on the water and early light as it really sets the bird off nicely. Good work!

Heather, I like the image but on my monitor it looks a little to bright. I think it would benefit from some level adjustments and some USM also.

Yes, the image appears to light and lacks a little contrast. Otherwise a very sweet image and well worth the effort.

I think this is very nice Heather! The lightness mentioned doesn't really bother me here. I really like the unique water color and the little wake the bird is causing.

On this monitor the colors just look like muted pastels. I love the look as it has a quiet morning mood to it.

Very pretty.

Sweet shot. The background is very nice and the sharpness of the greebe is super. Love the catchlight and the bow wake.

Heather,

I like the yellow BG, the bird is well posed, a nice low angle and quiet water. Just needs a bit more shapening.

the sharpness of the grebe is super

Sorry Heather to start an of topic conversation, but this is the perfect example of something I see around here very often: people nor agreeing on the sharpness of an image.
As I mentioned on my previous post I find your grebe a little soft, and I think it would benefit from some sharpening. Apparently Ken agrees with me, but on the other end, Bill states the exact opposite.
Is it our eyes, or monitors or our criteria?

Heather,

Very nice image. On my monitor it looks a little light, but it may be my monitor.

Jim

Pretty shot Heather....it does look a little "soft" but I think it adds to the mood of the image. Nice job.

Heather, what a fantastic photo. Love the calm yellow/green water and the low angle.

From my perspective, it does look a little soft, light and in need of some gentle contrast. Its not overexposed, just on the light side and the detail in the blacks are awesome. I think it may be a contrast issue.

Sweet shot Heather. Nice image indeed...

Heather
I am fascinated with the Grebes....always fun to watch and never a dull moment. This one is beautiful. Perhaps a tad light and in need of a touch of USM. It's hard for me to judge those things as I think they are ever so slight on this one and monitors can be so different. I like this one no matter what....well worth the loss of sleep.

Very nice shot of a really neat bird. I think the ripples are a nice touch.

Heather -

Sweet shot!
The low angle in the water is great.

Very nice!

- Paul

Heather,
Looks pretty good to me. Sharpness looks fine to me. I think the lightness (or lack of contrast possibly) could be easily fixed.

Everything is there, the pose, great looking bird and clean background. Super shot! It does look a little bright on my monitor also.

• Posted by Alexandre Vaz
  Sorry Heather to start an of topic conversation, but this is the perfect example of something I see around here very often: people nor agreeing on the sharpness of an image.

Not a problem! I think it could be attributed to differences in monitors and differences in taste as well. My monitor is very sensitive to oversharpening and sometimes I don't sharpen enough because of it - this could be one of those cases. The first morning light was very soft so I don't feel this is too "off" what the scene actually portrayed, but agree that it could be sharpened a bit more, too.

However, I do appear to have lightened this image too much (for my own tastes), I like it better after having worked with it a bit more in Photoshop to darken it. I don't recall it being this light when I worked with it before, but I guess it must have been.

These guys were sure a lot of fun to photograph. This is very well done.