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Attachment 80529
Another image from my recent trip to Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park. Taken from vehicle , beanbag.This little guy kept flitting ahead of the vehicle and move just as I was ready, eventually stopped long enough for a few shots. Fullframe added canvas on right and bottom blurred BG
50D/EF500f4+1.4/f5.6@1/250/ISO400
Cool looking subject and it presents well as a vertical.
DOF looks perfect to me.
I wish the bird were looking up at just a bit less of an angle (I'm being picky).
I think that if you used the burn tool or a QM on the lighter colored background area to the right of the subjects head, it would be less distracting.
Beautiful bird, Pieter, with spectacular colors. Image is nice and sharp, but you could have stopped down to f/6.3 or f/7.1 to get the tail in focus. Exposure is good, but I think the bird's head could be lightened a bit.
The entire upper part of the BG is distracting to me - there are some artifacts, particularly in the URC. As Jim suggests, some work on this area would improve the image.
John
Beautiful. Gorgeous bird and superbly sharp image. Great colors.
If anything, I wish the end of the perch wasn't freshly cut. I would also consider cloning out that bit of branch that's forking downwards.
I also find it slightly tight above and below, but do absolutely love it as is.
I love seeing images of these birds and this one is a beauty! I like the sharpness, detail and colour.
Exquisite bird, colors, image design, and BKGR. It could use a bit more space all around. The broken ends of the perch were bad luck. Be right back.
It took a bit of effort but the results were well worth it (to me) as the bird and the image are so, so beautiful. Removed a few nubs from the perch and then reworked the end of the perch. It looked to phony so I went back and grabbed the "end" of the perch from the original, rotated and enlarged it, and tidied it up a bit. I am quite proud of my efforts :)
ps; Most of the work done with the Clone Stamp Tool and a series of Quick Masks as described in Digital Basics and APTATs I.
Very nice..Good detail and BG...The natural colors are superb
Pieter, super comp and pose, and you have exposed the colours very well. I like what Artie did to the end of the perch.
One of natures best marvels, I thought the BG on the original a little dark.
Artie, Very clever work on the repost, both the bird and pose make it very worthwhile;)
Thanks Ken. No good for most contests but very good for wall hanging and for sales :)
Thanks all for your kind comments and suggestions.
I was'nt happy with the oof broken end of the perch but was in two minds wether to fix it. Arthur you made up my mind , great job on a tricky bit of cloning thanks. I now need to try it as well. Will also do some work on the background which was a sand dune with shadows. I suppose when shooting in the wild without setup and with birds not behaving a little leeway in processing is alllowed.
John G. thanks for your suggestion I agree. The bird kept sitting in the shade so it was a compromise between shutterspeed and aperture and the bird only gave me a few shots.
YAW sir. Very little cloning and lots of Quick Masking :) And I agree that some BKGR work would be advised. Try using the Clone Stamp Tool at about 40%.
