Azure Kingfisher

[Derek Willcox]

Would like Critiques on this picture
taken at Yarramundi reserve Aust
Canon EOS 7D
Lens EF500mm f/4L IS USM +1.4x
Shutter Speed (1/1600)
Aperture f/8.0
ISO Speed 800
Exposure Bias +1/3 EV
Aperture-priority AE
Center-weighted average
sharpened cropped to around 50% used blurring tool on background and cloned out branches
http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6021/5893284031_1990477942_b.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/derekwillcox/5893284031/)

[Ofer Levy]

This is very nice Derek! Awesome light and colours! IQ suffered from the crop and I would reduce the sharpening a bit. The eye looks a bit too "doctored" to me.

[Derek Willcox]

thanks ofer i did the crop then cropped it again for bpn size limit yes i lighten the eye and sharpened it
many thanks for the help sometimes you can go over board trying to fix things up

[Randy Stout]

Derek:

Lovely bird, brilliant colors. Depending on what is around the bird, I certainley think a slightly looser crop would work, and help with the IQ a bit as well. Perhaps the perch is too massive, and you cropped to reduce its impact. Even if that is the case , you could add back in a little canvas above and to the right.

The blue grey background works well with his colors.

Cheers

Randy

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Derek,
Excellent advice above! I think a bit of rework in PP'ing will go a long way in taking this up a notch!

[Satish Ranadive]

Marvelous image.Love the composition and colors.

[Morkel Erasmus]

Lovely bird! Some good points raised above. It looks as though the blues in the neck and head are oversaturated...toning it down will probably reveal more detail...:e3

[Derek Willcox]

thank you all for the good info
a repost
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5078/5899193950_face1a2b25_b.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/derekwillcox/5899193950/)