Feathered!

[James Boland]

This image is a slight crop of a macaw's feathers. The macaw is a resident of the Saint Augustine Alligator Farm, Florida. The photo was taken the first of May at the Fabs and Al workshop after Al had mentioned the technique.

Canon EOS 50D, Canon 70-200mm f/4 at 200mm
Camera settings: f/5, 1/250 shutter speed, exposure comp -2/3, ISO 400.

I applied Color Effects polarization and Pro Contrast filters. I also used Topaz Denoise.

I am open for comments.

[carole wiley]

I don't know what to say, except wow. I very much like the colors and the textures. The only thing that isn't perfect, to my mind is that the upper right corner seems to lack all that great texture. Not a big deal for me but, if I had to find something wrong with this, that is what it would be.

[denise ippolito]

James, Really great colors and great idea!! I agree you could crop the top part off and still have a very interesting image. Well seen and I look forward to more!!

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

Great colors and patterns James. Agreed about crop. Thanks for sharing and I look forward to more! :)

[WIlliam Maroldo]

Hi James! Concept is good, and colors excellent. I think the F5 is what got you in trouble, the too narrow depth of field caused out of focus areas, especially at the top. In this type of image, you need the entire image to be in focus IMO, and since you were pretty close to the subject, F5 doesn't cover too much depth.
About the crop; There are advantages in both vertical and horizontal orientations, depending on the subject. When you go to a more square crop, you loose the advantages of either. There are situations where a square crop works, usually with strong 45 degree diagonal elements, but here you have feathers in a more or less vertical direction. Therefore, I think a vertical orientation would be called for. Opinion, of course.regards~Bill