Indigo and Blue

[Doug Brown]

A Boat-Tailed Grackle from Gatorland. Beautiful birds, but they sure do make a racket!

http://birdwhisperer.smugmug.com/Animals/Birds/BPN/20100302-V5C3076-Boat-Tailed/804617715_xEyWq-O-2.jpg

Canon 1D Mark IV, 70-200mm f/4 @ 200mm, f/5.6, 1/400, ISO 640, hand held

[Dan Brown]

Great detail and just the right light to show the colors Doug! I wish for a better head angle though.

[Stu Bowie]

Doug, in this, you have captured every shade of purple through to blue. Good exposure to have brought out all those colours, and well done on the sharpness too.

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

In such shots, details and sharpness are so important. Awesome job on that front. Liked the crop. The greens in the BG are going well with the colors on the bird.

[Randy Stout]

Doug:

Lovely colors here, really like the darker disc around the eye with the lighter shades surrounding it. Sharp.
Excellent eye. (did you have to do any work there?)

On my work monitor, I wish it was just a tiny bit brighter.

Cheers

Randy

[Bill Dix]

A real exposure challenge, beautifully done! Love the colors and the bg, great detail. A very handsome image throughout.

[Simon Bennett]

Well done capturing those nuances of blue and black. Very crisp too.

[Doug Brown]

Excellent eye. (did you have to do any work there?)

Nothing out of the ordinary Randy. Lightened the iris a little, darkened the pupil, selective sharpening. That's about it. What were you thinking?

[Randy Stout]

Doug:

I was thinking how good it looked! Maybe a bit lighter than I would have expected, but certainly believable.

Cheers

Randy

[Doug Brown]

Here's a 100% crop of the eye straight from the RAW file.

[david cramer]

Color and detail are excellent. Just the right touch on sharpening. BG is also quite nice. As mentioned, perhaps a tad brighter.

[Keith Bauer]

I like this very much. Details are great. Overall it does feel just a tad dark. Rather than the traditional methods of lightening up the image, I tried a different approach. I've added 3 Omni lights to the image in strategic places via Filter/Render/Lighting Effects. The change is subtle but I think it helps show off the iridescence of the Grackle. Doug asked that I post this, so here it is.

[Doug Brown]

Thanks Keith. Looks great!