Swallow-tailed Bee-eater

[Pieter de Waal]

80529

Another image from my recent trip to Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park. Taken from vehicle , beanbag.This little guy kept flitting ahead of the vehicle and move just as I was ready, eventually stopped long enough for a few shots. Fullframe added canvas on right and bottom blurred BG

50D/EF500f4+1.4/f5.6@1/250/ISO400

[Jim Fenton]

Cool looking subject and it presents well as a vertical.

DOF looks perfect to me.

I wish the bird were looking up at just a bit less of an angle (I'm being picky).

I think that if you used the burn tool or a QM on the lighter colored background area to the right of the subjects head, it would be less distracting.

[John Guastella]

Beautiful bird, Pieter, with spectacular colors. Image is nice and sharp, but you could have stopped down to f/6.3 or f/7.1 to get the tail in focus. Exposure is good, but I think the bird's head could be lightened a bit.

The entire upper part of the BG is distracting to me - there are some artifacts, particularly in the URC. As Jim suggests, some work on this area would improve the image.

John

[Sidharth Kodikal]

Beautiful. Gorgeous bird and superbly sharp image. Great colors.
If anything, I wish the end of the perch wasn't freshly cut. I would also consider cloning out that bit of branch that's forking downwards.
I also find it slightly tight above and below, but do absolutely love it as is.

[Jim Crosswell]

I love seeing images of these birds and this one is a beauty! I like the sharpness, detail and colour.

[Arthur Morris]

Exquisite bird, colors, image design, and BKGR. It could use a bit more space all around. The broken ends of the perch were bad luck. Be right back.

[Arthur Morris]

It took a bit of effort but the results were well worth it (to me) as the bird and the image are so, so beautiful. Removed a few nubs from the perch and then reworked the end of the perch. It looked to phony so I went back and grabbed the "end" of the perch from the original, rotated and enlarged it, and tidied it up a bit. I am quite proud of my efforts :)

[Arthur Morris]

ps; Most of the work done with the Clone Stamp Tool and a series of Quick Masks as described in Digital Basics and APTATs I.

[Dumay de Boulle]

Very nice..Good detail and BG...The natural colors are superb

[Stu Bowie]

Pieter, super comp and pose, and you have exposed the colours very well. I like what Artie did to the end of the perch.

[Ken Watkins]

One of natures best marvels, I thought the BG on the original a little dark.

Artie, Very clever work on the repost, both the bird and pose make it very worthwhile;)

[Arthur Morris]

Thanks Ken. No good for most contests but very good for wall hanging and for sales :)

[Pieter de Waal]

Thanks all for your kind comments and suggestions.

I was'nt happy with the oof broken end of the perch but was in two minds wether to fix it. Arthur you made up my mind , great job on a tricky bit of cloning thanks. I now need to try it as well. Will also do some work on the background which was a sand dune with shadows. I suppose when shooting in the wild without setup and with birds not behaving a little leeway in processing is alllowed.

John G. thanks for your suggestion I agree. The bird kept sitting in the shade so it was a compromise between shutterspeed and aperture and the bird only gave me a few shots.

[Arthur Morris]

YAW sir. Very little cloning and lots of Quick Masking :) And I agree that some BKGR work would be advised. Try using the Clone Stamp Tool at about 40%.