Your thoughts on my 70-200L 2.8 bird pics

[ben4633]

I took a few pictures with a rented 70-200 L 2.8 non IS. This is the second time I have rented this lens and am one click away from buying it. I love this lens, the sharpness, focusing, and just the overall feel of the lens is awsome. Both pics were taken with a 1.4 TC. Let me know what you think.

[ZL4life]

the second one looks great. but the first one seems to have strange patches of lighter blue around the birds.

[ben4633]

Your right, must have been something in PP. This one is better, Thanks

[Travisj]

I think the first one looks better than your second attempt, looks more natural. The second attempt looks too sharp, almost looks like they were cut out and stuck back on there. In the first one you might just have to feather it a bit less and I would try cloning the sky around them to fix the light blue issue. But I don’t know exactly how you did it either so that might not work. The duck looks great though.:D

[ben4633]

Actually I did less to the second picture than the first. Other than boosting the saturation a bit and sharpening.