Rainbow on a Stick

I was getting a bit weary of still sorting and deleting my beach images. So The lorikeets are back. This one looked a bit subdued compared to the others. I'm still trying for a BIF lorikeet!

In ACR - increased exposure a full stop. Highlights all the way to the left. Shadows a bit to the right. A touch of clarity.
In PSCS6 - Curves adjustment layer on stick. Contrast/Brightness layer on tail. Curves adjustment on head to lighten a smidge. Evened out BG by cloning and painting. No NR. No smart sharpening for web. It looked OK to me.

Canon 5D2
Canon 100-400mm @ 365mm
f6.3 @ 1/800
ISO 1000
Hand Held

C&C Always welcomed and appreciated!

Gorgeous! You could post one of these psychedelic clowns a day and I'd keep enjoying them for a very long time! Great sharpness and color, wonderful BG, lovely light!

My only useful suggestion is that it's better to expose higher to start with so you don't have to increase it in post, which brings up noise. But you've heard that before... Maybe this was from an earlier time on the learning curve.

There is a touch of magenta in the perch but I rather like it. I'm wondering if you used a reverse-S curve on it to lower contrast -- it has a bit of an unusual look. Not bad, just unusual.

I pulled it into PS to see if blacks could be darkened just a bit (didn't decide) and saw it doesn't have the profile embedded. If you re-installed PS on your new computer, you'll want to re-set the Color Sttings (and a bunch of others).

Thank you Diane. Yes. I have heard that before...I'm a slow learner. This is yesterday's bird. The light is still darkish when the birds are here. Winter in sunny Queensland! 1 degree outside. I thought I was pushing it with the ISO of 1000.

The art of finding a good stick is almost as hard as finding a good bird. I did struggle with this one. Yes. A reverse S curve. Do you think the bottom looks more in focus than the top?

I had to think about all those RGB things again, but it looks like I have forgotten some important things. I'll look at that tonight.

Totally agree about finding a good stick, and that is an excellent one! (Looks like eucalyptus. We have quite a few of them around here.) Good sticks are sort of like clothes -- wear it a while and when you get tired of it put it away, and when you take it out later it will feel like new without the bother and expense of shopping.

I think both ends look equally in focus, if you look at the texture of the lichen.

I think of shopping like I do housework!

Kindred spirits! :t3

Beautiful pose, Glennie. I agree that the perch has some unusual "contrast" to it. But it doesn't bother me, maybe because it looks like it goes with the BG. I am still jealous that you could go for a few weeks and then come back and this beautiful bird is still waiting for you. How much is the retainer?

Beautiful! I love the eyes on these, I'd love to see a close up of just the head focusing on that complex eye and just get enough neck in the image for the portrait to include those briliiant colors.

Beautiful bird, as has been better stated above. I'm afraid my contribution (?) is limited to composition, and this comes under the IMHO heading. What about moving the bottom up a bit, and moving the bird and perch (wonderful perch) a scootch ("scootch" being a technical term meaning a tad) to the left?

Thank you Jim for your contribution! I had thought on raising the bottom up a bit, but decided I liked it as posted. I think by scootching the perch to the left would make the bird a bit middle..ish, with no where to look?