Feral parakeet

[Kerry Perkins]

I've been acting like a "stalkerazzi" for the last eight months, trying to get a clear shot of these Black-hooded Parakeets! This is the closest I've gotten yet and still have a ways to go... Better BG than my hawk pic, but only by 50%... :) This colony of about thirty birds lives in Sycamore Canyon, on the SoCal coast north of Malibu. They are thriving nicely, considering that they are a tropical bird and they are adapting to the cooler weather here. I've been chasing them for so long they seem like old friends. They are gregarious, noisy, and I just love it when they stop for a few minutes...

50D, EF400 f/5.6L
AV f/5.6@1/2000 EC 0 ISO 400
HH, no flash, evaluative metering

Did some NR on the BG with Topaz Denoise, used the blur tool on the leaves close to the bird as they were too sharp. Cropped away about 50%.

Thanks for your comments.

[William Malacarne]

Kerry

Nice photo...shows his colors well and got a very nice eye.
They are in several places throughout So Cal. I have seen some a few years ago in Pasadena.

Here is some info on them....they also would like Feral parrots to be reported for tracking purposes.

http://californiaparrotproject.org/black_hooded_parakeet.html

Bill

[Kerry Perkins]

Hi Bill, I contacted the CPP several months ago! I reported the colony size and location and offered to donate photos. Never heard back from them, but I'm hoping that the information was added to the database. I have also seen feral flocks in Westlake and the San Fernando Valley. Always interesting to talk to folks at the campground here and hear about other colonies around the area!

[OvidiuCavasdan]

I like the diagonal placement of bird and the HA. Interesting composition with the distant BG and the oof leaves separated by the diagonal line of the bird. Nice colors. I like it!

[Lance Peters]

Gorgeous bird kerry - love the colours and sharp as a tack, seeing a little noise in some parts of the bird.
A little more room up front for my personal tastes .
Like it - Good show.

:)

[Gus Cobos]

Hi Kerry,
This is one beautiful bird, love the colors and the fine details...agree with Mr. Peters on adding more room to the left side of the frame...looking forward to your next one...:cool:

[Christopher Miller]

Very nice pose and colors on this bird, Kerry. Nice BG too. Personally I find the OOF branch behind the tail a little distracting though not terribly so. Agree on adding more room up front. Well done!

[Harold Davis]

i'll jump on the bandwagon and say i'd like to see a bit more room up front too. it was my first thought. the second was it looks a bit contrasty? slightly harsh light? on any account, it a sweet pose and congrats on the capture. it's a beautiful bird.

[Kerry Perkins]

Hi Harold. The light was actually pretty ok, late evening just before sunset. Funny thing is, I thought it looked a bit flat so I added contrast, which is something I hardly ever do! :eek: Might have to do a little repost tonight. ;)

[Bob Miller]

Hi Kerry! I agree it looks a bit too contrasty for my taste but that could just be the intense colors. More room on the left is my main suggestion. Otherwise just beautiful!

[Ron Boisvert]

Hi Kerry,
What a great photograph of this parakeet! The HA, colors, background, and sharpness are excellent. Coming from a person who consistently crops too tightly:o, I also felt that it was too tight on the left.

I also checked the shadow values and looked at them with Curves, and it seemed like a lot of values were lower than 10 on the RGB channels. I have learned to keep them above 10 for printing purposes, so I don't know if that would matter to you or not. It looks like you 'might' have partially removed a branch behind its back, and if so, I would take it all out in between the V of the branches. I also find it slightly distracting.

All in all, it looks like your persistence has paid off. It is a really nice shot!

[Kerry Perkins]

Thanks Ron! Very perceptive and helpful suggestions. Think I'll do a little more work with this one! I'm thinking I could lighten the iris a tad too...

[Kerry Perkins]

Thanks for all the good suggestions! I reworked this a bit - took away some contrast with a curves layer, tried to tone down the noise a bit without sacrificing detail, lightened the iris, and added some canvas on the left with Content Aware scaling. For Ron, I banished the remaining bit of branch. Hope it presents a little better. :)

[Ron Boisvert]

Kerry, Yes! I like it even more! Nice work. I think that every change you made improved it. One question, though - What the heck is Content Aware scaling?

[Jeff Cashdollar]

Kerry,

Repost is better, still looks a tad worked. Are you using the clone or QM tool to perform the heavy lifting to cleanup BG objects.

I love the Feral, nice image. I share my home with a Green Cheek and a Sun Conure.

[Kerry Perkins]

Thank you Ron, I appreciate your feedback!

Content Aware scaling is a new tool in CS4. Adobe purchased it from a couple of imaging scientists who figured out how to scale an image by looking at the "energy" contained in it and only scaling the low-energy portions of the image. Sounds strange, but the net result is that you can protect areas of the image (like skin tones or alpha channels that you create) from being distorted by scaling. It's a lot easier to use than it is to explain! Check out this demo - http://av.adobe.com/russellbrown/ContentAwareScale_SM.mov . Also just search on Google and find all kinds of interesting articles about it.

[Ron Boisvert]

Kerry, thanks for the explanation and link. I will check it out. I'm going to stay with CS3 for a while, however. $$$$$

[Kerry Perkins]

Hi Jeff,

Hope you throw a towel over them at night! :D I've had cockatiels and they were pretty noisy!

I used mostly the clone stamp and the patch tool on this one. The patch tool is the greatest for taking out pesky branches! I also use the blur tool to touch up cloned areas that start to look splotchy.

One positive to not having the big glass and the pristine environments is that you learn a lot about working images! ;)

[Kerry Perkins]

Understand that Ron! I have been fortunate to work for companies that purchase these things for me to use! I have bought a lot of the $200 and below range, but the big stuff gets really pricey! I've been using PS since version 1.0 and ImagePro (the original product) before that. Couldn't live without it! What would be the point? :D:D:D

[Ron Boisvert]

Kerry, I just checked out the link to the video, and that is one amazing tool. I can think of many uses for it, but I'll just have to wait a while. Very interesting! Thanks again.