Breakneck - African Darter

[Morkel Erasmus]

I photographed this African Darter a while ago at a bird sanctuary in Pretoria.

I quite liked this pose and went for a crop that would accentuate it. The BG is calm water. I removed some reflections of nearby branches from the upper left corner of the water. Furthermore I used a levels and linear burn mask to tone down the hot spots on the upper left neck and the beak.

I specifically went for this squarish crop to get a line from top left where the neck bends to bottom right with the beak pointing that way. The bird was preening and in this movement stretched its neck in this weird way.

Techs:
Canon 1000D with 100-400mm L IS USM @ 400mm
f8.0 @ 1/640 SS @ ISO-400

[Arthur Morris]

Mork-o-rama, There is a light blue halo around the upper parts of the bird. The head is turned a bit too far away. The crop is somewhat awkward. More off the top and a lot more off the left would tighten it up considerably. Way cool neck and a good EXP.

[Morkel Erasmus]

thanks for the feedback Artie. dunno where the halo came from - did an entire rework of this.

here is the first version I made of this photo after it was taken - much tighter crop and without the blue halo.

[Stu Bowie]

I understand your reasoning for the comp, and it works for me. Excellent sharp detail, and stands out nicely against the water BG.

[arash_hazeghi]

Sharpness and definition is excellent, I agree with Artie on the original crop, the repost is much better IMO.

[Arthur Morris]

Mork=o-rama, I did not say a word about cropping from the right or the bottom.... This is the crop that I suggested. When working with the image I noted that image quality was poor and that the eye was not sharply focused (because sharpest focus was on the neck and the head was angled away, thus farther from the point of focus than it would have been with a proper head angle...)

[Morkel Erasmus]

thanks arash & Stu for commenting

Artie thanks for the critique - helps me improve every time. I must confess that I had already posted this image and then read the Head Angle Police thread, so I knew that one was coming. :)

[David Fletcher]

Certainly different Morkel. Well seen and thought out. TFS