Forest Kingfisher

Hello all, I think this is a Forest Kingfisher, it's from the Daintree region of Queensland... there was about 5 of these sitting in a tree overlooking a paddock and occasionally diving and I presume feeding on something in the grass. I was able to slowly work my way closer to them to capture the attached. I used my 1D4 and 500 F4 + 1.4TC all sitting on a 5 series gitzo tripod and a Wimberley 2 head. 1/1600 sec @ F5.6, ISO1000. Manual mode. about 70% of the original.. Processed in ACR, CS6, Nik sharpening. Tell me what you think... DON

Hi Don, I cannot confirm the ID of the kingfisher, and have never seen this species, but I do like the different blues he has. Good pose, and the whites look well exposed. Im finding the blue plumage on his wings/back a touch bright, as well as the perch. Toning down those areas wont harm the image, and I would have placed the KF more to the RHS, looking out into space on the left. You would also eliminate the leaf in the URC. In this, he is placed left of center, and looking 'out of the frame '.

Very nice bird and nice background.
The composition looks unconventional.
The bird should be on the left looking into the negative space.
It would eliminate the bright green and dark brown leaves on the RHS which are distracting.
With a little modification of the composition, it would look much better IMO.

Beautiful picture - I love the light and color. I also like the composition with the leaves in the top right...IMO. And yes, it;s a Forrest Kingfisher for sure :)

Hi Don,

Nicely captured. I think Stuart and Karl hit the nail on the head with his comments. You can kill two birds with one stone (not sure if pun is intended there) by removing the top right with a crop. Keep the aspect ratio the same.

The branch is a bit bright. Some selective burning and you're all set.

Miguel

Hi Karl & Stuart... Thanks for the comments... I have a quick repost here addressing the bight perch and back feathers. I am bit worried about the bird being too centred now... I could try and add canvas to the left but that's a little more difficult with this perch... for me anyway.. Thanks again..DON

wow, two more posts while I fix the bird.. Thanks Brian & Miguel..

The repost it very nice Don, much improvement there. Great work.

Hi Don, your repost is a great improvement, and I agree it would be fairly difficult to extend the canvas on the LHS. Another thought would be to go vertical. :w3

Don:
Excellent image of beautiful and colorful kingfisher.Just love it.
Here is the modified image.I hope you will like it. Vertical composition will also look superb. TFS.

Attachment 131093

Regards,
Satish.

Your RP was good except for placement of the bird so the last RP is absolutely works the best in show casing this beautiful species!!!

Nice looking bird, the head turn looks good
i like the RP with the exposure changed and the placement
interesting looking Kingfishers on view is nice

Thank you Santish for your repost, and to Marina and Vishaljadhav the comments.. I need to find a way to easily crop to an aspect ratio while positioning the bird in CS6... in LR its relatively easy.

regards to all

DON

I believe all you need do is set crop size to ‘original ratio‘, and then, with the mouse pointer in the crop box, simply move the box to the desired comp.

Love Satish's composition. This is a new species for me and you made a nice image of it. Thanks for sharing....I would love to see more.

Thanks Jory, I will see if I can find those options. Thanks Grace, Glad you liked it, I think there are others that maybe worthy although I'm heading to Baltimore soon and may not get a chance before I leave..

DON