been a long time...

[Dan O'Leary]

Hello, all. Life has kept me away too long. Here's one from Viera Wetlands in Melborne, taken two weeks ago. It's my best photo of the elusive (at least to me) Kingfisher, but still not great. Processed with LR3 Beta, just for kicks!

I'm pretty happy with it, all things considered. The white neck is a bit bright and I would prefer less of an up angle, but the head angle is nice and the overall IQ is pretty good for the techs:

2009:10:18
1dm3 @ 1120mm (800 + 1.4x)
Av @ 1/1250 sec, f/8
Eval +1 1/3, ISO 640
~ 50% crop

[Harshad Barve]

looks good to me , sharpness and expo is spot on , If mine , I may crop from bottom to reduce size of perch
TFS

[Stu Bowie]

Dan, I like the light and HA, and agree taking off the bottom will work. I would maybe lighten the eye a bit too.

[Phil Ertel]

Hi Dan, I enjoyed your image. Pretty good light and the head angle works for me. I agree that the whites on the neck are a bit bright. I am seeing pixels of 250+ in that region. It might be worth trying to reprocess to see if you could tone down the hot spots. If your not familiar with it there is a couple good threads on saving whites is the educational Resources Forum. Pretty good detail for a 50% crop. In a prefect world it would have been nice to see the feet. Thanks for sharing.

[Dan O'Leary]

Updated to tone down the whites in the neck and crop more from the bottom. Thanks for the suggestions, I appreciate the feedback.

[Arthur Morris]

The repost is an improvement. The feathers of the folded wing look a bit sharper than the face so perhaps some selective sharpening of the face would also be in order. I like the just enough look back head turn.

[Arthur Morris]

BTW, unless this is a huge crop which I doubt the bird could not have been that elusive....

[Dan O'Leary]

You are probably right about selective sharpening the face - I'll try that when I get back in Lightroom.

Kingfishers have an annoying habit of flying around every time I point a camera at them. This one was a creature of habit, though and returned to a distant perch for me. Even with the 800 and 1.4x this is a 30% crop.

Thanks as always, Artie.