Azure Kingfisher

In all seriousness, this is a mere grabshot with a fair amount of PP going into it. Only as far as the BG. I was photographing something totally different that morning and this little fella (they are tiny) just landed about 8m from me in a tree. So there was nothing I could have done about the business of the scene. Since I still don't have a really sharp and detailed image of one of these endearing little river kingfishers I applied all the PP skills I have, which are few, and went to work. To see a comparison to the original feel free to read my blog posting here. I found that Content Aware Fill (new CS5 fill option) worked well in some instances especially with the shadow on the orange breast you can see in the original on my blog post. The background was modified with a combination of CAF, patch and clone tools and some quick masking as well. All in all, this was really a rather difficult job. I reckon it would have been much easier to stick a perch in a stream near my home and wait in a hide and create this in camera. :o ('cept it's too hot here for hides, even in winter)

30D, 300mm f/4L IS USM + 1.4x, ISO400, f/8, 1/640th, Evaluative metering at 0, f430EX @ +1/3 with beamer, hand held, 70% of original image size. Applied linear burn to the white nape patch

I looked at the original, excellent work PP. Love the blues

Akos, excellent PP work indeed. What a gorgeous bird. Just a visual check, but the white on the neck looks a bit hot on my work monitor. Fantastic colors and sharpness.

Akos:

Well done post work. Amazingly colorful little guy. I agree with Peter about a sliver less sharpening.

Cheers

Randy

Pretty impressive PP job on this one, Akos.

Hi Akos you did great with the PP but more about the bird. Nice to get such a small bird almost FF and worth the extra PP work IMHO. Exposure and colours are great and a typical head position for a Kingfisher.

Akos, beautiful subject and you captured it well. Impressive PP.

Great PP job Akos! I would have been very happy with the original also! A Beauty!

Yay, you got an Azure!!!! Looks like it's just had a dive too. They are so tiny and their call definitely suits them. There is a very sneaky one at a spot I go to but I've been unable to get a decent photo thus far.

I agree you did a great job with the tidying up. The collar does look a bit hot.

Hey Bro, good work on removing the BG, and you have exposed and brought out the colours very well. They look natural, as some tend to oversaturate these little guys with all their bright colours. Good to see the droplets on the chest too.

Fantastic Image Akos !!! I'd take an excellent shot of any Kingfisher for the files any day well done.....:)

As has been said, a fine job on the PP, well worth the effort.:cheers:
Love the colour & detail here Akos, these guys are up there with the Malachite KF IMO.
TFS

Mate, you can do grab shots like that for me any day of the week!!:D

Looks to me like the PP was a labor of love and that you actually had fun doing it.