Blacksmith Lapwing

[Johan Pieterse]

Canon 1d mk3
1/1600sec
0.67EV
F7.1
ISO 640
700mm

[Doug Brown]

Nice looking bird Johan. Crop looks pretty good. Love the red eye. Looks like the image could stand some additional sharpening around the head. Thanks for posting!

[Tony Whitehead]

Good one, Johan. Pretty classic flyby when they are warning you off. Love the blue sky and feather detail. Was your exp comp + or - 0.67? Looks like you used flash with those reflections off the feet and double catchlight. Only wish is that there was better separation between the beak and far wing.

[Melvin Grey]

Good light has made the most of the black and white plumage, providing good detail all over. Pity about the broken primary feather, you couldn't help that, but it is interesting to be able to see the 'spurs' near the carpel joints of the wings.

[Johan Pieterse]

Dough, Tony, Melvin, Thanks for the comments. Much appreciated. Dough, I will try to apply some selective sharpening around the head area. Tony, exp comp was set to +2/3 and no flash was used.

[Johan Pieterse]

Applied addissional sharpening. Sharpend the whole bird instead of just the head area.

[Tony Whitehead]

Repost is a step up, Johan. Was the sun angle very low or was this over water ? - I am just trying to understand what is throwing all that nice light up under the bird and why there seems to be a double catchlight suggesting 2 light sources.

[Johan Pieterse]

Tony, the shot was taken over water. IMO the reflection of light from the water surface causes the secondary light source. Thanks again for viewing the edited version and comment. Much appreciated.

[Tony Whitehead]

Tony, the shot was taken over water. IMO the reflection of light from the water surface causes the secondary light source. Thanks again for viewing the edited version and comment. Much appreciated.
Thanks Johan. That makes sense - the water is acting like a nice big reflector bouncing in fill light. Look forward to more of your photos.