Lilac-Breasted Rollers

[Paul Marcellini]

I definitely had a lot of chances to refine (read learn) my long lens technique. It was tough on safari, a lot happens at once and I ended up handholding a lot because I had no time to wait for the vehicle to turn off and use a bean bag. Fortunately, this was a time that after the initial shots, I had time to get better and better ones.

I was shooting the front one when the second landed with a catch. I liked the bit of blue mirroring the colors in the background.

50d, 500 f4, 1.4x
Lens (mm): 700
ISO: 400
Aperture: 5.6
Shutter: 1/500
Exp. Comp.: +0.3

[Maxis Gamez]

No Image Paul.

[Paul Marcellini]

Got it now, man your quick

[Maxis Gamez]

Very nice Paul. I would push the reds a little more but I like vivid colors. You did well with the DOF and sharpness.

I hope your workshops are doing well... you deserve it!

[Mark Dumbleton]

Great image Paul. Love the BG, and detail on the birds. I like your sharpness on this.
Care to share your sharpening technique - I understand if you dont want to share it.

[susanschermer]

Great capture, Paul. You've caught on to long-lens technique very quickly. Excellent DOF. Was the background this clean or did you do some work on it?

[Paul Marcellini]

Thanks guys, Mark, I'm running to work but will get it to you.

Susan, thanks, this was the only shrub standing in a sea of grasses. So a nice creamy bokeh. =) I did remove a leaf or two where my name is.

[Randy Stout]

Paul:

Lovely colors and wonderful light here. Sharp, beautifully exposed. Excellent head positions on both birds.

In a perfect world, I wish the top bird didn't have as many leaves in front of his body. The lower peek a boo one works well as is.

All in all, a lovely image.

Thanks so much for sharing.

Randy

[Lorant Voros]

Very nice birds, nice colors, BG and light. Interesting image created with the 2 rollers. Thanks for posting; congrats.

[Mike Lentz]

That is just beautiful, it belongs in a magazine somewhere. The BG sets off the colors of the bird in a nice manner! Congrats!

[Michael Stern]

Hi Paul
Just a wonderful image and very appealing to the eye. Also would love to share the sharpening tech. you used as it is right on. Where was the photo captured?
Best to you,
Michael

[Stu Bowie]

Great double, captured in stunning light. You have exposed the colours excellently, as people tend to over saturate brightly colours birds. The two are pin sharp, and what a killer BG. Congrats on an outstanding image.

[Doug Brown]

Great light and two beautiful subjects against a gorgeous BG. What more could you ask for?

[Nicki Gwynn Jones]

Hi Paul,
Another request for you to share your sharpening techniques! Just lovely - well done...
Best,
Nicki

[Daniel Cadieux]

I only wish for a bit more room below...everything else is superb!!

[Marina Scarr]

Hi Paul: I am with Daniel on this one. I love everything about it and only wish for more room at the bottom. If you have the extra space, I would give it a try with more room. CAn't wait to see more images from your trip.

[Charles Wesley]

This is breath taking. Great technicals with loads of visual impact and oh so colorful.
Thanks for sharing...
______________________
Charlie Wesley
St. Augustine Beach, FL

[Paul Marcellini]

Thanks everyone, I too wish for a touch more room below but I was shooting the front bird with room to spare. The second flew in, I got 4 frames off and this was the one with the best head angle and room below.

On to sharpening now, not mine, but first described by Marc Adamus, a top notch landscape photographer. Basically, you start with a file roughly double in length of your longest finished size. I usually finish my files at 720 px, so I start with a 1500 px file. Then hit filter>sharpen>sharpen usually twice. Now this looks horrible, but when you downsize(image>resize) it usually comes out great and really makes the fine detais shine. In this one I actually hit the eye of the front bird with the sharpen brush once after it was all said and done. It was like 17%. If you have a lot of space that doesn't need sharpening you can always brush away with the history bush to save on file size as well. Noise and fine details are a pain for getting fiel sizes smaller.

Hope I explained it easy enough. thanks again for all the comments, I really appreciate it.
Paul

[Juan Carlos Vindas]

Beautiful work Paul!

Lovely pair.

The combination of colors reminds me of something I read about colors and personality. This are calming colors for me!

Love everything about it.

[Chris Kotze]

Excellent comp colours and BG. Super Image