African Pygmy Kingfisher pair

[Carl Walker]

I think Ritesh might like a look at these as we know of his passion for ODKF's.

This pair has taken over a nesting hole about 5m from the Little Bee - eater's hole I am observing. A bit of good luck here as although I see them pretty frequently they don't always hang around for long. The predominant perching tree is a small Sausage tree. However they are not as relaxed as the LBE (which are now happy to hawk insects above my head and lens) yet so I had to crop this image a bit.

Bean bag
Canon 1D MK IV - 300mm f2.8 MK II plus 2 X extender MK III
ISO 2500 - 1/3200 sec - F8 - Manual 0 ev - shot with sun behind me at around 8.30am

I chose this image to work on for a number of reasons. Recently Arash mentioned a technique he used to sharpen the 3 BO that he captured recently. This Pygmy KF image is something I wanted to try and salvage as the BIF is also just out DOF range. I realise that my PP work is not there yet but here it is and I would appreciate any guidance here especially if it worth keeping.

LR5 - WB, some brush work on the different birds for small amount of noise and burning beaks slightly. HSL work.
PSE 9 - Made 2 LM's for both birds and inverted
On the bird flying which is the one out of DOF I did various experimentation of low % NR in Neat Image as at ISO 2500 there was quite (and still is) a bit of noise. I made a D&B layer for it to try and darken the wing slightly - selectively isolate the bill to clean it up some. Applied adj layers of levels, Hue&sat and C&B to both birds. You may tell they are over saturated but I couldn't be decisive on it so will leave it up to you.
The BG is a bit busy but it is extremely difficult to catch these guys with a clean BG. I used quite a bit of NR here. Looking at it perhaps I should of upped the green sat a bit, and they are a bit blurred now.
I then applied strength 100 radius 0,5 and strength 60 radius 0,8 to BIF and strength 100 radius 0,5 to bird perched. I have a few different crops but chose this for now

Appreciate any C&C here

Now that its up it might be a bit light BG wise but will wait for you guys to comment. Thanks

[John Robinson]

Wow! Makes my Sparrows look a bit sombre !!!
Looks a teeny bit bright but been playing with monitor settings
Great stuff
JR

[Bill Dix]

Great capture of these spectacular birds. But the PP work creates an unnatural look to the BG. The birds may be a bit oversaturated, although it brings out their spectacular colors. The BG looks like you desaturated it, plus the hefty NR. I'm guessing you could back off on whatever you did to the BG and still have the birds stand out, although I understand that it is busy. I have also tried Arash's blog suggestion of increasing the USM radius where there is a DOF issue (I may have misstated that?). Hard to create detail where it is lacking, as in the flying bird, (not that he suggested you could) but it does seem to help some.

[Karl Egressy]

Great interaction captured. This is very hard to do. Congratulation on pulling this off.

[keith mitchell]

Hi Carl,agree with Bill the birds do look a tad oversaturated but the interaction of the birds is excellent,very well caught.

Keith.

[Cheryl Arena Molennor]

Love the interaction and the composition Carl. I have to agree with Bill's note as well

[Loi Nguyen]

Carl, fantastic capture. It is definitely an image worth working on. The heavy NR to the BG caused an unnatural image in that the birds seem to be pasted on the BG. I'd start all over with this one. The leaves between the two birds may need sharpening a little since they are on the same plane. Overall the image is a bit bright. Did you bring up exposure in PP? That would explain the additional noise say on the under wing of the BIF. Agreed that the birds seem overstaurated. I'm no expert in PP, but there are many folks here who are. If you post the out of camera image, I'm sure some folks will try and we can all learn. Loi

[Shawn Zierman]

Those are gorgeous birds!! I like the apparent interaction and action in general. You've received some excellent feedback already regarding your processing of the image. I would just add that it is clear to my visual eye that the light quality that is illuminating the kingfishers would surely illuminate the leaves and tree trunk differently than is shown. The surroundings just look too washed out given the apparent light quality falling on the birds. Bummer about the nictating membrane being mostly closed on the perched bird....but did I mention how beautiful these birds are!

[Carl Walker]

Thanks everyone. Went back and tried again. There are some settings that I need to leave alone as it has caught me time and time again. I desaturated the birds slightly. Reworked background and leaves and branches.

[Bill Dix]

I like this much better, both the birds and the background. The birds still have a bit of pasted-on appearance; this possibly could be helped by feathering the selections when you make your layers of the birds. Still, I'm in awe at the capture of the two birds, especially the landing pose of the left bird with feet sticking out. A marvelous image.

[keith mitchell]

Carl agree with Bill this is much more natural IMO but after saying this it is still a super image.

Keith.:S3: