Aerial Combat (Village Weavers)

Was lucky to capture these gregarious birds during the mating season. The male builds the nest and the female demolishes it if it's not up to standard. Fun to watch and even more fun to photograph...This was not a set-up and the birds were not fed. They love to strip the leaves of the palms in the garden and sometimes they have a quick quarrel-it only lasts few seconds...I had no time to change my settings. The green BG is the palm behind them, its leaves blowing in the wind-a welcome blur.


A bit too colourful and some blown highlights, perhaps I should take the RAW image and re-process-is it worth it, in your opinion? I re-sharpened it to post but now it seems over-sharpened to me. Just wanted to share it, the PP work is clearly not good enough, I am kin to redo it if you think it is worth the effort.

EXIF:
Nikon D3S
Nikon 600mm
1/2000s
F9

Kind regards,

Very nice action shot.

Amazing timing Gabriela, liking very much the red eyes showing, just a little more shutter speed may of helped the image being even sharper....but understandably shots like these dont generally leave any time for adjusting camera settings to optimal. I could se this alos working in a landscape[e aspect, although it works framed quite nicely as is

Great action and just a very cool photo.
If 1/2000 didn't freeze this, I am not sure you could have adjusted on the fly?
It appears you cropped tight, I might loosen it to get better details.
Very nice as is....

First of all, I think this is a winning image!!! Well done in thinking fast to have captured this action/behavior. Love the movement portrayed here and the raised foot on the left bird.

The yellow are looking a tad hot to me and it could be a tad oversharpened. This image is TOTALLY worth reworking in RAW. I agree on a slightly loser crop.

Little over saturated for my taste but boy, this image rocks. Great timing in capturing the action and having eyes sharp. Little bit f wing blur actually adds to the image.

Thank you so much for your kind comments, this was processed some time ago (I used to really do things over the top then...). I will definitely look at the RAW again and will post the new version soon, last night I just sharpened a bit and toned down the greens (not enough though!).

Have a great day,

Terrific shot.
Excellent timing, nice background, and nice head angles on both birds.
Very well done.

impressive image, lovely action captured mid air
i guess the rework as suggested above will make this go over the top , this image is superb

Thank you so much for your kind comments, I must sit down and process this again at the week-end:w3 I hope I can surprise you with a much better version !

Warmest regards,

Love the action image would tone down saturation

Great action caught Gabriela. Nice that you got both birds in good position with the red eyes visible. Sharp and well exposed too. A few tweaks as mentioned will elevate this beauty. Well done.

I cannot wait to re-process this:bg3:, thank you for your encouragement and kind comments!!!

Warmest regards,

Amazing interaction and dynamic pose for both plus that excellent eye contact... but the IQ is holding it back, I would give it another shot.

Excellent action packed image.
Beautiful wing positions,nice eye contacts,sharpness looks good,nice lights,beautiful backdrop and composition.

Regards,
Satish.

VERY VERY nice action shot! Congrats!

Thank you everyone for your very kind comments and critique, I have done my best to correct all I could in this image. Cropped from the top and bottom and added canvas on the sides (used clone tool to match the BG). Tried to get more detail on the Weaver (LHS) but unfortunately there wasn't much to recover there, the bird's face becomes grainy. Changed slightly the colour of BG and painted some orange instead of the white (soft light). Resharpened the birds (unsharp mask). Blurred BG. Kindly let me know what you think of the RP.

Many thanks once again,

Hi Gabriela, like the RP. :cheers:

IQ looks a lot better in the RP. I just took it into PS and tried a couple of things. I lightened the eye area of the left bird a little, as well as it's feet. I also gave it a centered crop without cropping too much b/c I felt this crop threw the image off balance . This image is worth all the work!

Thank you Marina, I so appreciate your comments and advice! Will give it another try, I really am fond of this image:5

Warmest regards,