Lylac Breasted Roller

[Tobie Schalkwyk]

Haven't been around for a while so let me jump in with a theme shot before it's too late! :w3 Captured in the Kruger National Park.

Minimal adjustments in LR for sharpness. Cropped for composition.

Nikon D7100
Nikon AF-S 300mm f4 + TCE 14 II (630mm FFE)
f/7.1 | 1/800s | 200 ISO | Beanbag

[Ian Wilson]

One of my favourite African birds Toby so you have a sucker on the line here. Nice to see the 'wire tails' and strong breeding colours. I suggest you sharpening the head and loosen up the crop a little. Regards, Ian.

[Randy Stout]

Toby:

Good comments from Ian. Head is a bit soft, colors very nice, a bit snug in the frame. Like the greenery as opposed to just a bare stick for perch

Fits the theme well.

Cheers

Randy

[Tobie Schalkwyk]

Thanks for replying Ian. I was actually a little shocked at what ViewNX 2 did to the sharpness of my image as it resized it for BPN purposes. Unfortunately we do not have a way of editing the first-loaded image so I had to leave it as is. I've redone the resizing using Windows Paint instead and it appears to be way better. The original RAW of this image was unfortunately lost in a robbery at home so recropping is out of the question.

http://www.birdphotographers.net/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=154231&d=1438258026

[Geoff Newhouse]

Very nice bird that you have captured. Good head angle, perch and the high-key background works good for the theme. I was going to suggest more sharpening and then saw the repost and that looks perfect. Good stuff.

TFS
Geoff

[Gabriela Plesea]

Hi Tobie,

Lovely image design and I really like the pose from the bird!

ISO could have been pushed to at least 400 to get more SS, but nice thinking on DOF:)

RP much better - thank you for revisiting this special capture.

I am really sorry about the robbery as well as the loss of your backups.

Crop is fine with me, in terms of PP work I feel that you might be missing out a lot by playing around with various software and not always making the best out of your lovely captures. For R 128.12 per month I get to play with Photoshop CC on two computers - just give it a thought Tobie, will you?

Looking forward to more from you, enjoyed viewing this image - this is one of my favourite avian species too:)

Kind regards,

[adrian dancy]

Sorry to hear of the robbery...I know the feeling!
Re-post is much better. It is a shame the tail is so much foreshortened. But a good capture nonetheless.

[Tobie Schalkwyk]

Thanks for looking & commenting Gabriela! I've been using the Adobe monthly deal for some time now but did not feel that this image needed any more PP. I've used ViewNX 2 from my work laptop for resizing as I did not want to wait until I have access to my own laptop later in the day. I would never have guessed that it would drop that much sharpness when only performing a resize though! I also love these birds, they're just in a class of their own!

[Gabriela Plesea]

Minimal adj. in PP CC, WDYT?

Kind regards,

[Tobie Schalkwyk]

Minimal adj. in PP CC, WDYT? Kind regards,

Thanks for spending time on this, Gabriela! I'm afraid this is 'a little too much' for me. Maybe something in the middle of my & your versions...:S3: