The Glamorous Bird.....

Oriental Dwarf Kingfisher.......(Male Bird)
Alibag,Maharestra,India.
August 2013.
Last year is wonderful for the ODKF. Lot of Rain , lot of chicks , every pair Make the nesting for two , two times. This year because of poor rain in the konkan belt the in Maharashtra. almost every pair 's first breeding cycle is gone. now out of six only one nest is in running condition. All other nest are empty but birds are still there and hoping for more rain...................
Enjoy................





Exif.....

Camera Model Canon EOS-1D X
Tv(Shutter Speed) 1/80
Av(Aperture Value) 8.0
Metering Mode Evaluative Metering
ISO Speed 640
Lens EF500mm f/4L IS II USM +1.4x III
Focal Length 700.0mm

Stunning bird, beautifully captured, good composition, love the food item. The background is just a little noisy which you could easily take care of otherwise all good for me. Cheers, Ian.

Love the bird, the image design, the prey items, and the BKGR. The REDs in the bill and some of the MAGENTAs on the plumage are over-saturated as presented. Though I have never seen this bird in life holding down the Alt key while clicking on the Highlight triangle in Levels shows the clippiing. I added 75 points of CYAN to the REDs and added about 25 points to the MAGENTA to reduce those problems. I sharpened the face and the bill with a Contrast Mask and then eliminated the BKGR noise by selecting the BKGR and applying Filter/Blur/Surface Blur at 4/3.

All of the above plus tons more is detailed in my Digital Basics File–written in my easy-to-follow, easy-to-understand style. Digital Basics File is an instructional PDF that is sent via e-mail. It includes my complete digital workflow, dozens of great Photoshop tips, the use of Contrast Masks, several different ways of expanding and filling in canvas, all of my time-saving Keyboard Shortcuts, Quick Masking, Layer Masking, and NIK Color Efex Pro basics, my killer image clean-up techniques, Digital Eye Doctor, creating time-saving actions, and lots more.

What a fascinTing bird Ritesh! Love the head turn and prey item. Artie has done a wonderful job of improving it! TFS.

My critique abilities get weakened when confronted with such a gorgeous, frankly outrageously gorgeous(!) bird....and the natural prey item....Sweet little curving perch and strong subject placement, body and head angle, and overall composition.

Amazingly sharp for a SS of 1/80 (or is that a typo?)
Great colors and a great close-up.
In your OP there is a white dot above the head that I would evict. I have never see this KF/branch in real life but when I look at the branch I see a magenta cast on the branch and in the BG. Please disregard my comment if this is a correct color rendition.
Gail

Very nice - well framed, nice head position. It seems even the fish turned his head to look toward the camera ;-)

Never saw such KF in reality but the colors seem to me a bit to strong ?!

Congrats
Markus

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Arthur Morris

Love the bird, the image design, the prey items, and the BKGR. The REDs in the bill and some of the MAGENTAs on the plumage are over-saturated as presented. Though I have never seen this bird in life holding down the Alt key while clicking on the Highlight triangle in Levels shows the clippiing. I added 75 points of CYAN to the REDs and added about 25 points to the MAGENTA to reduce those problems. I sharpened the face and the bill with a Contrast Mask and then eliminated the BKGR noise by selecting the BKGR and applying Filter/Blur/Surface Blur at 4/3.

All of the above plus tons more is detailed in my Digital Basics File–written in my easy-to-follow, easy-to-understand style. Digital Basics File is an instructional PDF that is sent via e-mail. It includes my complete digital workflow, dozens of great Photoshop tips, the use of Contrast Masks, several different ways of expanding and filling in canvas, all of my time-saving Keyboard Shortcuts, Quick Masking, Layer Masking, and NIK Color Efex Pro basics, my killer image clean-up techniques, Digital Eye Doctor, creating time-saving actions, and lots more.

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Thank Artie for your efforts and agree to you on this. Your images looks great with all the natural shining bright . Thanks for all the tips and information you shear here.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by gail bisson

Amazingly sharp for a SS of 1/80 (or is that a typo?)
Great colors and a great close-up.
In your OP there is a white dot above the head that I would evict. I have never see this KF/branch in real life but when I look at the branch I see a magenta cast on the branch and in the BG. Please disregard my comment if this is a correct color rendition.
Gail

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Yes its shoot on SS of 1/80 some of the sharpest images i took on SS 1/15. Because the light is always very low because these birds usually seen in monsoon season with over cast skies. Thats why.
yes agree with you on Magenta cast i will keep in the mind from the next time.

You are most welcome Ritesh. With the great 4-stop IS on the Series II super-telephoto lenses making sharp images as low as 1/60 sec. even with the 2X III TC should be routine for folks using proper sharpness techniques.

First of all congrats Ritesh for capturing this bird so beautifully in such adverse conditions. Agree with Sir Arthur Morris on saturation issue, plus i can see little magenta color mixed in white below his bill IMHO. And also the white dot over bill is disturbing, which is already been corrected by Sir Arthur Morris. But the great thing about this shot is to freeze this bird in such a low SS as this bird is the quickest amongst all Kingfishers.Great shot once again. Keep them coming.


Thanks and regards
Rahul.

love the colors, such a handsome bird.

you need to work your post processing, as posted image showed a lot of noise for such a low ISO. It looks like you sharpened the BG instead of the bird.

plumage details have suffered from slow ss. your settings were bad. you need to learn how to use high ISO, with the 1Dx I would use ISO 3200 or higher in such conditions...you would get much better IQ.

TFS

Beautiful and colorful image.

Thanks Rahul for been Support.Point is noted and will be applied in upcoming images .......

Quote:

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Originally Posted by arash_hazeghi

love the colors, such a handsome bird. you need to work your post processing, as posted image showed a lot of noise for such a low ISO. It looks like you sharpened the BG instead of the bird. plumage details have suffered from slow ss. your settings were bad. you need to learn how to use high ISO, with the 1Dx I would use ISO 3200 or higher in such conditions...you would get much better IQ. TFS

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Thanks Arash,There no way for any one in the world who can learn every thing about photography and Post Processing. Every one is still learning and it will be a long way to go for me. Just two half year ago i take my first image of bird , i came too far from that now and still learning new things every day, it is not mean that i did not know how to shoot or how to set the camera. yes there is grains in the BG, i know that still i post the image because I like it that way..........., still i am saying that i will fix it from my next post. I am working on PP and it is becoming better and better every day, thanks to this group for helping me in that.No offence, Arash.