Strutting Sharptail

[kevin Hice]

Male Sharptail Grouse before the Blizzard last week. Enjoying the warm up before the big storm. These birds are tough been one hard winter. Processed in Dpp 4.10 Photoshop. Shot in ND.
Canon 5D Mark 1V
Manual
500f/4L IS 11 1.4
700 MM
6.3
1/3200
ISO 800

[dankearl]

I would love to have these guys as subjects....
Very nice, the snow has a lot of texture (maybe a blue caste?)
The POV is great with those great feet...

[Raybel Robles]

This is beautiful, love the pattern on this species, i would maybe sharpen the head just a tad more.

[Isaac Grant]

Great pose, great bird and great surroundings. All the makings of a fine photo. I would lift the exposure just a touch and as Raybel says sharpen the head a bit more using smart sharpen at 70 and .3. Nice blue snow as well :t3:eek3::c3:

[kevin Hice]

Lifted the exposure some Isaac.It does look better.Also resharpened but really don't see much.

[Isaac Grant]

Where was your focus point? Was the head just out of the focal plane? Bird is angling away but looking back so maybe hard to get the whole bird in sharp focus?

[kevin Hice]

Thanks for the input. I went back and looked at the focus point. It was on the front of the breast a couple inches below the neck. I was surprised because I usually try for the head.

[Isaac Grant]

Very easy to miss the head of a bird that is in motion. I actually really like the angled away pose with a nice over the shoulder look back like you have here. But on such large birds it is very difficult to keep the full bird in focus. Head just seems a touch out. I did the following. Roughly selected just the head. Used a 25% opacity NIK formula with Detail Extractor and Tonal Contrast. Then smart sharpened just the head at 80 and .4. Then I roughly selected the body and used the same NIK formula and then smart sharpened the body at 50 and .3.Head looks a bit better to me and there is more detail evident in the feet and the cocked up tail as well. Of course it is better to do this on the full res file but I think with some minor edits this can be super nice.

[kevin Hice]

Thanks Isaac for the suggestions. Definitely looks better. I notice the sharpness right away with your improved version .

[Mike Poole]

Love the walking pose and the environmental interest. Isaacs RP shows it off to its fullest

Mike

[Randy Stout]

Kevin:

Excellent capture of an uncommon bird. Issac polished it nicely, esp. the sharpness.
I like the bold walking pose, snowy environment.
Makes me cold just looking at it!

Cheers

Randy

[annmpacheco]

terrific capture and what a difference Isaac made, well done guys! Really like the strut here and the full look at the grouse. wonderful

[John Mack]

Really like raised foot and how well you can see the feet. The pose is nice as well.