Andean Condor

[Jay Gould]

In 2009, when we were in South American, we visited the breeding grounds of the Andean Condor near Bariloche, Argentina. This thread (http://www.birdphotographers.net/forums/showthread.php/81607-Condor-Country-Brailoche-AR?highlight=Condor+Country) shows where we climbed so that I could attempt to photography the condors. We were driven to a road about 1/2 mile up and to the left of the image; then we went down onto the rocks. There is a pinnacle in the center; we were on the flat to the right of the pinnacle. The shoot was early in the morning before the sky when it was very grey and overcast.

Camera: 7D
Capture date/time: 14 Dec 09; 9:23am
Light condition: cloudy; overcast
Lens: 300 f/2.8
Focal length: 600
Extender: 2X
Distance:
Tube: none
Flash/Comp: no
ISO: 1600
Exp Prog: Av
Speed: 1/2500 sec
Aperture: f/5.6
Exp Comp: none
Metering: Evaluative
WB: Auto
AF Drive: AI Servo
Tripod: no
Filter: None
Crop: About 20% off of the top

Processed in LR4, CS5, Nik, Blow-up

All C&Cs gratefully appreciated!

[Randy Stout]

Jay:

I like the pose, slightly bedraggled look, big talons, even the white washed perch seems appropriate for him.

I would consider running some NR on the BG.

If I didn't need space for the extensive sig lines, I would def. crop down more from the top.

Cheers

Randy

[Jay Gould]

Hi Randy, thanks for taking the time to comment. I did run Nik Define on the entire image; I will run it again on the background.

I was about to ask "sig lines" and then :eek3:; screw the sig lines - I will also shrink the sig and do the crop. Let's first see what else other want me to do too.

Love this place! (BPN that is!!)

[dankearl]

Jay, very nice.
I would also take some off the top.
Great species to get a photo of.

[Angad Achappa]

I would like a slightly tighter composition too and also a little boost in saturation perhaps. else the pose is great and nice details on the subject.

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Jay,
To add to the above suggestions...might tone down the "poop" rock a touch too. Nice to see you posting!

[Mark Itol]

Love the pose of this one. Nice detail, too. It must have been an adventure going up to photograph this species.

The colors appear muted on my screen and I agree on running NR on the background. Out of curiosity, why were you shooting ISO 1600 and 1/2500 sec?

[gail bisson]

Hi Jay,
I like to see unusual birds posted. Very nice look back pose and I like the slightly "wet and bedraggled (sp?) " look. I have never seen this bird in real life but wonder if there is a slight magenta cast? The BG has a "ground glass" look and I am unsure if this is due to noise or atmospheric conditions. Very nice to see the loose feather on the chest,
Gail
PS Why such a high ISO with the 7D?

[Jay Gould]

Hi, RP based upon suggestions:

Cropped down from top.

Background: OP: Define default on whole image; RP: Define default on whole image; created a CASE layer (Ctrl-Alt-Shft-E) so that I could run Define a second time only ont he background; deleted the CASE layer to keep file size down.

Darkened the poop perch! :wave: Thanks, Roman!

Gail, I learned where the magenta cast came from; see next post.

ISO: Couple of things about this moment in time. I had only been a photographer - whatever that means - five months and had the 7D for three months. Would I use the same ISO today knowing what I know about the noisy 7D above about ISO 800? Probably! At ISO 1600 I was shooting wide open (f/5.6) using the 300 with a 2X TC. I was HH and standing in the wind on that mountain top - did you look at the location I referenced? - shooting the flying condors. They would land in front of me - well sort of in front of me :w3 and preen, do their business, and off they went. I was happy to be able to get 1/2500 in those conditions. Clearly, you do not need 1/2500 when they have stopped and perhaps with more experience I would have quickly backed off the ISO and lowered the SS for the perched shot.

What do you think of the RP?

[Jay Gould]

Gail, good catch on the magenta!

The two images: the left image is in CS5 on the desktop; the right image is the result of a CS5 Save For Web.

I had already reduced the file size using a program called Alien Skin Blow Up and converted to sRGB 8 bit. I then opened the image in SFW to optimize to 250kb and when it opened I immediately noticed the color change - YUK!

Cancelled that and saved as a jpg; did an export in LR4 to my hard drive to increase the quality and posted the RP.

Save For Web is off my workflow!!

[Frank Schauf]

Beautiful portrait, great pose and colours.

[Morkel Erasmus]

lovely species Jay, and one well worth the effort to see and photograph...
the repost sorts out the noisy BG but I would sharpen the head some more in that version

I have never had PS change colour in an image when I use "save for web" - did you have "convert to sRGB" ticked and "embed colour profile" ticked?