Griffon vulture close-up (captive)

[Jerry van Dijk]

Panasonic DMC-FZ18, handheld (IS), 60 mm (360 mm DSLR equivalent), ISO-100, F/4.5, 1/50 sec, pattern metering, EC -0.7, RAW. Edited with Silkypix and Corel Photopaint. Minor PP: cropping, increased sharpness and selectively increased contrast on the eye.
This Griffon vulture in our nearby zoo assumed a classic cartoon vulture position (crooked neck and all) when I was taking some pictures. Because of the distracting BG, I zoomed in on it, but ended up with just half a bird in my frame. Trying to make the best of it, I cropped the frame further so that the bird nearly completely fills the frame. HA is not perfect (showing part of the other eye which may be distracting) and because I wanted to keep the eye in the "rule of thirds" hotspot in the UL corner, I ended up with some BG in that corner. I don't find it too distracting, but I'm not sure if it is a big no-no compositionwise. All in all, I was pretty pleased with the result. I love those big, detailed feathers on these birds! C&C very welcome!
- Jerry -
(PS. I noticed that I lost a lot of detail in the compression process for getting it to posting requirements)

[Krijn Trimbos]

Hi Jerry,

How are you man? Hope you are doing alright at your new job and are not missing the CML too much.....;)

Regarding the shot I really love the composition here especially 'the looking at you from behind my wings' feel that this shot has. The grey colours really help to give this shot something extra.

Post processing wise this looks a bit oversharpened and to me this looks like it wasn't sharp to begin with. With this particular shot I would try to ease back on the sharpening a little bit. Also there seems to be a little overexposed patch on the top of the vultures head which you could maybe try to get rid of taking this back to RAW or was it shot Jpeg??

To enhance sharpness when shooting
-I would defenitly, if you would get another chance with this vulture, try shooting from a tripod next time as this will certainly enhance the sharpness of your photo's made under low light conditions.
-Maybe using some FF would also help with getting some sharper images, but be careful not overflashing the subject (dial in some FF compensation in your camera).
-Some more DOF might have helped as well by adjusting the aperture, but this would have required you to increase ISO value and thus noise levels, or you should have used a tripod to minimize motion blur from handholding.

I hope all this makes sense. If you have any questions just drop me an e-mail.
All the best,

Krijn

[Lana Hays]

Great suggestions from Krijn. With that said......I really love the composition as well as this so different. It's one of those images that I really enjoy viewing....and returning for additional views. Well done.

[Jerry van Dijk]

Hi Krijn and Lana,

Thanks for critiques and compliments! I've taken them to heart and reworked the image, getting rid of the overexposed patches on the head and the excessive sharpening. Hope you like it better this way, I know I do! Will take a tripod next time, flash won't work because they're behind glass!

Krijn, I'm doing fine! I like my new job a lot and still have a lot of CML work to remind me of the good "old" times!
Kind regards,

- Jerry -

[Maxis Gamez]

Hi Jerry,

First post does it for me. The details are amazing with a great composition and feeling for this image. Second post looks a little too soft for my taste!

[Jerry van Dijk]

Hey Maxis,

Thanks for the compliments! I found out that it strongly depends on your monitor whether the first image looks oversharpened or not. On my monitor at work, the first picture looks fine and the second one indeed too soft, but on my laptop, the first one indeed seems over the top as Krijn remarked.
- Jerry -

[Maxis Gamez]

I still the first one looks just right! :D

[Lana Hays]

Hey Maxis,

Thanks for the compliments! I found out that it strongly depends on your monitor whether the first image looks oversharpened or not. On my monitor at work, the first picture looks fine and the second one indeed too soft, but on my laptop, the first one indeed seems over the top as Krijn remarked.
- Jerry -


That probably explains why I thought the first was oversharpened. I only have laptops......MacBook and MacBook Pro. Our monitors as school are horrible so I only use my laptop.

[Dave Mills]

I like the first post better. Very interesting comp with a good deal of impact. You know you have a good image when folks want to stop and study the image.
Thats what I found myself doing!

[Tony Whitehead]

This is a lovely image you've captured here, Jerry. The usual advice would be to increase the ISO to gain a bit of shutter speed but you can start to run into noise issues with the small sensor - no real noise to see though even in the shadows. I agree the first post looks best to me (on an Apple LCD Cinema display). The thing that is bothering me is a greenish colour cast (related to shooting thru glass). I have tried a neutralised version - done some local adjustment to that amazing eye and a very slight noise reduction over the wing and bill. Not sure how this looks to you.

[Jerry van Dijk]

Hi Tony, thanks for working on my image! I'm very pleased with the results. Your colour correction does wonders for the blue details around the eye and the bill, although it gives the image a bit colder overall feel. I'm amazed how much detail you were able to get out of the eye. It makes the stare even more intense. I do feel it's a little too light, which makes it look a little unnatural.
- Jerry -

[christopher galeski]

mint shot jerry,like what tony has done with it,the wing feathers do it for me.thanks.

[Dave Phillips]

stunning image, Tony's repost is very good IMO.
The feathers do show a bit of oversharpening on my monitor.
The bit of eye color is sweet