Cormorant portrait

I decided to post this photo in the man and nature category in that the trained cormorant has been a working bird for man since 960AD and continues to be utilized in modern times in Asia for catching fish.

That would make sense if this showed a cormorant actually being used by a human for fishing; as the portrait of a free flying bird it really belongs in Avian.

This is a mostly successful image. The eyes of cormorants have fascinated birders and photographers as long as I can remember, and every portfolio ought to contain at least one such image. I like the proportions here, and the colors. Detail is pretty good, although I think you've lost some fine detail with that high ISO value and potentially some noise reduction in post processing.

As with the flight shot of the Osprey there are dark and light halos around the subject where it meets the neutral background. If you ned to do some shadow/highlight recovery it is always best to first select the subject and apply the adjustments only to the selection - if done correctly this will prevent these unwanted spillover effects.

Thanks Richard. Great points. Interestingly, I debated with myself over the osprey shot in that the original one does not show that looks fine but after a bit of PP I did slightly notice that effect and was hoping I would slip it by in that the detail of the feathering was slightly better. Guess I didn't!