Moorhen+Repost

Gary - nice bird. I pursued one of these on Thanksgiving but it had left the area a few days before apparently. The lighting was a bit tough here and as such the blacks were underexposed - considering your ISO was only 400, I think you'll be able to tease some more detail out of the dark areas. I'd also consider more of a pano crop.

- Luke

Very nice, Steve--and glad to see you finally got enough light to get below ISO 1000! If you have the space, I think the comp would look good with the bird a little lower in the frame. Nice colors and detail in the bird--the eye stands out better in the larger version. I think it would be worth trying to pull a little more detail out of the blacks on the face.

Love the reflection and the exposure looks pretty good on the blacks, but could be lightened up a little on the face.
A slightly closer crop all around the bird would work, eliminating a touch off the left hand side and a bit more at the bottom.
Merry Christmas Steve, and I've been happy to help in any way I can

Steve,

I have always found this species difficult and challenging to expose properly because of the darks, the whites and then the combination of the reds & yellows in the facial area. I think you did well with the exposure, though I would agree that I'd like to see the head a little lighter to expose the eye better. I can see it well in the larger version but the blacks just behind the frontal shield and surrounding the eye look blocked up.

In the field I may have tried some positive EV to see if that helped with the exposure of the darks.

I agree with the comp suggestions presented and may provide a stronger comp, though I find the image appealing composed as you have presented it too.

I'm very much looking forward to seeing your images in the New Year. Merry Christmas.

I have only seen this species once but I think they are very attractive birds. I think the crop suggestions would improve the image but it works as is. I also agree with lightening up the face area if possible. I bet you got some great wildlife at the Caymans. Can't wait to see more.

Merry Christmas, Steve. Nice image and you did a great job of catching the plumage coloration.

Thank you everyone: such professional comments---as usual! My bird reference (Bradley and Rey-Millet, "Birds of the Cayman Islands", Revised Ed., 1995) states that head and neck are charcoal black. Also, I noticed as soon as I posted the original that, as Brian mentioned, the large version shows the eye better than the small version. So, the intensity of the black changes on scale-up. I tried various exposures and opted for a pretty subtle change that does definitely show up better on the large version but has only a small effect on the small version. Interesting. I also tried to improve the crop (it's now at 9.3 MP). It was fun to be able to work at a lower ISO too! However, as you will see in future posts, shade often pushed me to higher sensitivies even in Grand Cayman. I intend to explore fill flash too (as Nick and Nate have suggested in the past). However, I'm already beginning to feel like "Techno Bill" in Dilbert with all of the equipment! Anyway, thank you all again so much for your comments and Merry Christmas. Re-post attached.

Steve,

The repost is an improvement in the area of the head. Fine work!

I think Luke has made some good suggestions on the comp for improving this Gary.
And Brian's comment about bringing up the detail at the head is all it really needed IMO.
Nice job on the re-work & Happy New Year to you as well