Black Cockatoo portrait

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

Almost full frame. Captured near home along y favorite stretch of the local river. This is a really cool fellow, belonging to a young couple, who walk him daily and he can free fly and mix with other birds, yet comes back to his "flock" of humans. A sweetie, but the bite is a killer, especially on the ears! LOL!

30D, 300mm f/4L IS USM, 1.4x, ISO800, f/5.6, 1/200, 430EX at zero, beamer,

[Mital Patel]

Akos this is a beautiful capture.

the point get me to in to discussion is the beak reflection which is big. Also the BG is superb and if that can be sort out with nice blur or NR without noise it adds a bit more contrast to the image.

eye is just superb.
wish the beak was bit upper side showing under part also.

[Randy Stout]

Akos:

Interesting composition. I wish I could see the entire beak ,since that is such a distinctive part of these guys. It does give him a bit of a coy look however as posted.

I might consider a slight midtone adjustment to darken them slightly.

A bit more DOF to sharpen up the feathers on the back might have worked well also.

I like the backstory!

Randy

PS:Mital and I were typing at the same time, sorry to repeat.

[Morkel Erasmus]

agree on darkening and some more DOF would have helped. great close-up, you really feel he's about to whisper something in your ear (or bite it off ;))

[Juan Aragonés]

Superb image Akos, love the composition, BG and terrific details in the eye. Just fantastic. I agree about toning down the bill just a bit and the feathers in the foreground too. I agree about DOF but, man, you can be very happy with this one!

[Daniel Cadieux]

Lightness issue has been addressed, but what an otherwise excellent image. I like that we can see a tiny bit of the BG peeking between the bill and neck. Cool story too, thanks for including that info :-)

[Mark Dumbleton]

Great portrait - agree with abovementioned DOF issue and darkening of the bill. Well done!

[Fabs Forns]

Beautiful portrait, with lots to like. Great BG, excellent compo and exp. I may, as mentioned, darken the bill but I like your choice of DOF, emphasizing the eye. The contrast between the plumes and colors of BG is awesome.

[Stu Bowie]

Super sharp detail around the eye and beak. Cool coy pose, and yes, I believe these guys dish out a mean bite.

[Axel Hildebrandt]

I like the composition, details, eye contact and BG. I'm not familiar with this species but the beak looks fine on my monitor.

[Juan Carlos Vindas]

Hello Rex!

Very nice bird. Love the way it turned its head towards the camera.
I only wish for more DOF so we could see the whole bird in focus and may be tone down the lighter parts of the feathers on the shoulder. The BG needs some NR and removal of dust bunnies. jc

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

Thank you kind folks for all the constructive feedback. I will rework this image. Plus when I did the PP on this, that was quite a few months back and I have learned some very nice steps from nowhere else but BPN!!!

Cheers :)

[Jasper Doest]

Nice intimate portait! Great framing. However I would like to see some more DOF in photographs like these.

[Gyorgy Szimuly]

I like this tender moment as presented. Lovely. Details on feathers are killer.

Szimi