Wood Pigeon Portrait

[Simon Wantling]

Horrible weather here in the UK today ( at least where I was ) so just only really managed this Wood Pigeon image. Although common birds and often regarded as a pest, they are still a good looking bird when close up like this. As always, comments appreciated.

7D, 500mm+1.4X, f7.1, 1/320ss, ISO640 +1/3ev. Processed in LR4

Thanks

[gail bisson]

This is one of your nicest posts, Simon.
IQ and detail are excellent, the head turn perfect, exposure spot on and lovely BG.
Really like your comp as well (maybe a sliver off LHS?)
No nits from me and well done,
Gail

[Karl Egressy]

Nice head angle, excellent details and background. The bird must be a great looking one.

[jack williamson]

Tons of detail, exposure is right on, so is HA. Looks like something went wrong with it's pupil or do they look like that on these birds?

[John Ippolito]

Incredible nice details, and exposure. Pupil is odd as Jack has mentioned. Comp and BG are very nice, as well. Nice work!

[PhilCook]

Very nice portrait, loving the super fine detail and over the shoulder eye contact.....I took an image of a local Pigeon here the other day and it had the same off shaped pupil as this one...maybe natural ?

[Simon Wantling]

Thanks everyone for the comments.. Just to confirm that the pupil on the Wood Pigeon is an odd shape like this. It does look a bit weird.

thanks again.

[vishaljadhav]

WOw you did nail this one so nicely
I have seen this bird when i was in UK and it looks wonderful, your image here is fantastic, the Head turn tons of details and a wonderful green BGmakes it special
great one

[christopher galeski]

very nice,sharp,good detail,nice BG and head turn.

[Satish Ranadive]

Wonderful portrait with superb details,nice colors,beautiful BG and composition.

Regards,
Satish.

[Melvin Grey]

Very nicely composed portrait with excellent feather detail. Regarding the pupil, Yes this is perfectly natural, many birds have a similar appearance, just look back at posts of American Oystercatchers as a prime example.

[Simon Wantling]

Thanks all for the kind comments. I've just reprocessed the image DPP using the excellent guide from Arash and Arthur. I've posted it here as a comparison and I think its an improvement. I've always thought that DPP was better at extracting detail and the guide helped to tweak my workflow. Any thoughts on the repost? I think the sharpening looks more natural.