Indian Roller

[susanschermer]

Captured from a Jeep in Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve. Mark III, 400mmDO lens.
ISO 400, f/4, 1/1000. BG blurred and highlights darkened. I'm not sure what would make it look better.

[Randy Stout]

Susan:

Brillant colors with great wing position. Interesting head angle.

The background tree divides the image vertically into two sections, which is a bit distracting. There appears to be some noise in the the birds wings. I thought about different crops, but I think this is your best option.

In a perfect world, perhaps a bit to your left would have helped the background issue, but probably would have worsened the head angle and overall angle of the bird to image plane. Its always a trade off :))

Thanks for sharing. Hope to see more of this beautiful bird.

Randy

[Beth Goffe]

The tree is mildly distracting but perhaps it can be toned down a bit so it's not quite so obvious. Otherwise, it's a great shot. If these rollers are anything like the lilac-breasted rollers in Africa, they are really skittish, so getting them in frame is a real challenge. Beautiful wing position and eye contact.

[Jim Poor]

That sure is one pretty bird! I'd love to see a little more light on the eye area and a good deal less in the background.

Some dialing down of the ambient exposure along with some added fill would accomplish a darker background and lighter subject.


Nice & sharp with great view of the subject.

[Chris van Rooyen]

Well done on getting the shot and lovely posture! Perhaps you could could tone down the light line in the left of the image a bit. Personally I use 1/2500 as my benchmark SS for action, but you did well to freeze the action on this one at that SS.

[Ramon M. Casares]

Pose couldn't be better IMO, light on the other hand could, but I still like the level of detail and colors you have managed to get here, tree on the BG is a little distracting but this is still a superb shot. COngratualitons!

[Arthur Morris]

The light is lovely. The pose, wing position and sharpness are superb. Perhaps a tad too SAT-ed/contrasty. I would love to see a JPEG representing the original untouched RAW after conversion. The crrok in the neck with the head raised is killer. This is one of your best.

[David Thomasson]

I agree with all the accolades above. A great shot at the right instant in time.

Compared with the subject, the background is too bright and too saturated. Serious competition
for attention there. Clean edges all around, so this is an easy mask. Play around with blurring,
dimming, desaturating, smoothing, etc., on the background. No end of possible ways to do more
justice to this great subject.

http://img257.imageshack.us/img257/1360/roller.jpg

[Mark Schmitt]

A possibility: create a layer of the entire image; use lasso tool, mask or which ever selection tool you are comfortable with, and select the part of the BG with the vertical branch; promote this to its own layer; select gausian blur, with 15 pt feather and blure at about 25-30.; this will cause the featered portions to overlap the bird, but this can be eliminated with earaser ON THE BLURRED layer; use blending slider to achieve the desired balance. Alternative is to use the "heal" tool and select areas of the BG and place over the branch; again place in own layer, blur and blend. Good image. ;-)

[Kobus Tollig]

Ditto All Arthur said. Still think this is great
David no offence but i dont like what you have done. BG looks fake and unnatural. Sorry
Well done on this Susan

[David Thomasson]

David no offence but i dont like what you have done. BG looks fake and unnatural.

No offense taken. It's just lens blur with the saturation toned down. I think it looks great! :D