Painted Stork in Flight

[Sandeep Mall]

Shot at Sultanpur Bird Sanctuary with Canon EOS 50D, Sigma 150-500 lens. Focal length 500 mm, ISO 320, f 8, SS 1/500mm

http://img535.imageshack.us/img535/8825/flyingpaintedstork.jpg (http://img535.imageshack.us/i/flyingpaintedstork.jpg/)

[Daniel Cadieux]

Bummer about the clipped feather at top. Seeing that it is just very barely clipped it should be easy to do a repair job on that by extending the canvas and then cloning in a tip from a neighbouring feather. Tough exposure situation too with those blocked blacks - perhaps a bit more detail can be brought out on the edges of those very dark feathers.. I love the position of the near wing, but wish the far one wasn't sticking out from the bird's head. Love those outstretched feet!

[Jean Chang]

Most technical stuff already commented. Would shadows/highlights maybe bring out more detail in the darks and even out the contrast a bit? The thing I like best about this shot is that the bird is looking right at the camera, and it's beak slightly open. I really like the overall look.

[Rod Warnock]

Great angle Sandeep and action well caught ! Agree with suggestions made above. Certainly the positioning of bird in frame makes for a dramatic view.
Best regards
Rod Warnock

[Phil Ertel]

Hi Sandeep, I like this image and agree with the positives above. I also agree with Axel's comments and thought I would give them a try. I hope you don't mind. I first added some canvas at the top and a little less behind the bird. I then add the tip on to the first primary. I used techniques from Robert O'Toole's APTATS I and II. I lightened the darker part of the near wing with the Shadow/Highlight adjustment. This increased he noise in that area a little so I ran some noise reduction just on the area that I lightened. I darken the lighter area underside of the bird with a linear burn layer and mask. I sure that with a little more time and care and working on the original file you could do a better job. Thanks for sharing.