Grey Headed King Fisher Taking Off

[Loi Nguyen]

Another image from Laikipia, Kenya. I didn't have enough shutter speed, so there was some motion blur. The light was a bit harsh and there was heavy shadow on the far wing. I hope this image can be salvaged.

1DX
500f4 II + 2X III
1/1250
f10
ISO-1600
Hand Held
Manual Exposure

Appreciate your comments.

Thank you

Loi

[Richard Stern]

Hi,

Nice try, but unfortunately for me the motion blur is rather obvious, and the feet and the perch are sharper than the rest of the bird. The colors are a bit garish - looks like harsh light. I don't know how you would rescue this - I'm no expert at trying to compensate for motion blur in pp, but my efforts invariably fail to work well. Love the color and smoothness of the bg, and the texture of the tree.

Richard

[dankearl]

The SS doesn't bother me, the problem is the focus is way off.
The motion blur in the wings is fine, the head is soft and the focus is the feet and perch.

[Satish Ranadive]

Beautiful image with very nice HA. Blurred wings looks good. Very nice color scheme. Agree with Dankearl about focus point.
You can sharpen selectively the head and darken the pupil little bit more.Over all very well done.

Regards,
Satish.

[stuart wanuck]

Still a very nice image

[Doug Brown]

I like the pose but as you and others point out, SS was not fast enough and your focus was behind the bird. I probably would have shot wide open and ISO 2000 for a full stop more SS. Which focus mode were you using on your 1Dx?

[Loi Nguyen]

Thank you all for your comments. Will try to selective sharpening. Doug, I always used AI Servo. In this case, I was focusing on the bird perching when he decided to take off, thus the low SS. Loi

[Loi Nguyen]

Please see a RP with selective sharpening of the head. Hope you like it better. Thank you. Loi

[Doug Brown]

Thank you all for your comments. Will try to selective sharpening. Doug, I always used AI Servo. In this case, I was focusing on the bird perching when he decided to take off, thus the low SS. Loi

I was wondering about which of the 5 focus scenarios you were using.

[Loi Nguyen]

Doug, I see what you are asking now. I set the AF to -2, 0, 0, which is what Arash advised for BIF. But in this case the bird is taking off suddenly, so that setting may be too slow to change the focus. I should have paid more attention here. Thanks. Loi

[MohsenVahedipour]

I can see some improvements in your repost. Nice pose, perch & BG & you very well controlled the harsh light.

[Manjeet & Yograj Jadeja]

Love the repost, nicely done