A Face Only a Mother Would Love

[Loi Nguyen]

With stromy and gloomy weather during the two days I was in Rockport, TX, there was no hope of getting good pictures of the Whooping Cranes who stayed far away, so I took photos of turkey vultures on the beach instead.

1DX
500f4 II + 1.4X III
1/1000
f5.6
ISO-1600
Handheld

Original horizontal, cropped for vertical.

Appreciate your comments.

Thank you

Loi

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Loi, good detail and nice to see you cranking up the ISO. :w3

Love the defused BKG which gives good separation, plus, great detail retained within the subject. I would like to see the original format posted, as a bit more space all round for the subject to breath would be good, it's a wee bit tight for my tastes and would give space for the subject to look into. However, as presented you could I feel, lose a sliver off the top. I'm away and using the laptop, but adding some basic mid tone just gives a bit more 'depth' but I could be wrong.

TFS
Steve

[Holger Leyrer]

Wonderful turkey vultures Image. Good Details and the colours mirroring the weather.
I wish me a bit more space on the right side

[John Rowell]

Nice job of taking advantage of what you can find, this is a nice image. Agree with others about adding some space, especially on the right side. Would consider a slight bend in a curves layer in the dark blacks, this would bring out a lot of detail and pop the contrast just a tad.

[Daniel Cadieux]

That's a very regal looking vulture with at thick "mane" on the neck! I agree about more room for the comp, and I try a version with a warmer WB. I also would clean up what looks like some processing artefacts in lower left corner. Nice details, lovely BG, and I like the water drops n the feathers.

[Loi Nguyen]

Hi Loi, good detail and nice to see you cranking up the ISO. :w3

I would like to see the original format posted, as a bit more space all round for the subject to breath would be good, it's a wee bit tight for my tastes and would give space for the subject to look into. However, as presented you could I feel, lose a sliver off the top. I'm away and using the laptop, but adding some basic mid tone just gives a bit more 'depth' but I could be wrong.

TFS
Steve

Steve, here is an alternate crop with more space to the right. This is as much space as I had. I could have switched the AF point to get more space to the right, but the bird was about to move, so I just took the shot.

Not sure I understand your "adding some basic mid tone" - so I used Curves and pulled up the curves at the mid point a little bit and applied only to the bird. Any comment?

John, I tried to raised the Curves to give more details on the darkes part of the feather, but it looks kind of fake, so left it alone. Turkey vulture has pretty dark feather and I think this may be more natural.

Thank you everyone for your comments. I like the RP more.

Forgot to mention, I cloned out an ugly barbed wire and some dark spots on the OOF post.

Loi

[vishaljadhav]

Nice image Loi,
I love the feather details and the over all IQ of the image, the head is interesting
I am surely with your first composition and understand the reason of the crop was more to do with the Pole that is fully visible in the BG in the second post and more blended in first.

[Grace Scalzo]

Loi, Guess where I am right now? In Rockport, photographing turkey vultures. :e3Cloudy and blowing at about 25 sustained. Nice image here. I like your original post with the strong diagonal lines.