Little Bee Eater

[PRABIR BHATTACHARYYA]

A Little Bee Eater from dry Mopane forest of South Luangwa, Zambia.
50D, 400mm f/5.6L, 1/1000s, f/8, ISO-500, +0.7, Ap. Prio., September 2011.

105707

Had to take about 50% crop, since shot from about 13m distance
Raw conversion using LR3, JPEG processed in PSE9 and CS3 including cloning and content aware brushing to remove distractions.
A bit of negative space kept on the left side.

Thanks for advice, C&C.

[Dan Busby]

Sweet bird Prabir. Gorgeous colours nicely processed and nice detail. I would consider removing the dead part of the left branch. I also see some irregularities around the beak.

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Prabir, I like the composition, light, exposure, BG and colors. The IQ did not hold up though. When you say 50%, are you saying 50% area or 50% on both sides. Latter would mean, you threw away 75% pixels...25%-of-the-orig crop, in other words.

[Rod Warnock]

Great capture, Prabir !! Like the compostion a lot. Agree with Kaustubh on IQ.
TKS
Best regards
Rod Warnock

[Arthur Morris]

A nicely designed image. The bird is a bit too dark/dense and a bit over-sharpened....

[PRABIR BHATTACHARYYA]

Dan, Kaustabh, Rod, Arthur - thanks for your observations and comments.
Kaustabh, its 50% area crop.
Dan, I let the dead twig stay only to balance the area since otherwise I'd have had to go for a larger crop or a large negative space. But I will try and remove that twig to make it clutter free. I have also noticed that the beak has a small roundish thing at the tip. Could be some part of an insect...I couldn't make out since I was a little far away.
Arthur, I'll try and work on it more and tone down the sharpness a bit.
Thanks again.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Prabir, colours are spot on, and I like the pose and colour of the BG. I feel you wont harm this image by removing the twig in front of the BE. The space infront would be fine for him to look into. I agree this is matbe a touch oversharpened, as there is a halo at the back and tail of the BE.

[PRABIR BHATTACHARYYA]

Stuart, thanks a lot for your observations & suggestions.

[Arthur Morris]

Prabir, There is no way to "tone down" sharpening once it is applied. You need to start with your master file. BTW, you should NEVER EVER be sharpening your master files.... We sharpen only when an image is sized for final usage.

[PRABIR BHATTACHARYYA]

Arthur, by toning down I meant I will do it on a conversion again. The original RAW still remains as it is.
Thanks again for your concern.

[Arthur Morris]

Arthur, by toning down I meant I will do it on a conversion again. The original RAW still remains as it is.
Thanks again for your concern.

YAW but we are still not on the same page :). Proper workflow involves converting the image and doing what you choose to do in Photoshop and then saving a master file. (I save mine as TIFFs; other save them as PSDs.) Your master file should never be sharpened. It is your finished product waiting to be sized for whatever use and then sharpened after sizing. In this case you would simply go back to your master file, downsize it for BPN, and then sharpen it. (You should not have to re-convert and you certainly should be using very little if any sharpening during conversion.)

At this point I can recommend a copy of our Digital Basics (https://store.birdsasart.com/shop/item.aspx?itemid=252) file.

[PRABIR BHATTACHARYYA]

Thanks Arthur for a detailed info.

[Arthur Morris]

You are most welcome. Thanks a stack for your membership support!

[PRABIR BHATTACHARYYA]

Thanks Arthur.