Trumpeter Hornbill - after breakfast

[Richard Flack]

I managed to get very close to a Trumpeter Hornbill last week. What an awesome bird! Light was quite harsh so little disapointed about the top of the bill (and should of underexposed in hindsight) but still liked the portrait. Look forward to hearing your comments.

Date taken: 12 September 2013
Photo details:
Canon EOS 7D
400mm f2.8
ISO 200
Shutter speed 1/100
F-stop 4
Exposure bias 0

Crop 30% reduction. Improved exposure and vibrancy.

[arash_hazeghi]

sharp details, good HA and I like the dark BG. looks like the upper part of the beak was overexposed and too much recovery has made it look grey. BG can use some NR.

TFS this nice head shot

[Satish Ranadive]

Beautiful portrait. Very sharp and good HA. I like the texture of beak, beautiful colors and details.Very nice composition too.

Regards,
Satish.

[Girish Prahalad]

lovely portrait. great details & pose. the beak looks good for most part except at the top as you have pointed out.

[Jim Crosswell]

I like the composition, sharpness and details. I did a quick clone job to give the top of the beak a better look just for fun. Nice image Richard.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Richard, great subject, and a hornbill I havent managed to capture yet. Well exposed on the plumage, sharp, and comp wise, I would take some off the bottom, add to the top and RHS. I like what Jim managed to achieve on the bill. Here is my quick version on my comp. I also sorted out the NR on the BG.

[Jim Crosswell]

I like the direction Stuart took with this composition.

[Richard Flack]

Awesome! Thanks so much for the great comments. I really appreciate it. Stuart/Jim - thanks so much for taking the time to fix things. Really great. If you have the time and willingness (no pressure whatsoever) I would love to know how you did the improvements as I am a real novice when it comes to post processing. Have learnt a ton on this forum so far. Thanks again!

[vishaljadhav]

Wonderful details on the bird, i like Stuarts pic on the composition

[Karl Egressy]

Great portrait shot. I enjoy looking at the very fine detail.

[Juan Carlos Vindas]

Great looking bird, amazing how that bird can carry such weigth...! nice sharpness and details. As you mention the over expose area on beak is a major problem here but I guess you could work it in Caramera RAW and under expose the image as much as posible trying to get to a nice exposure on the offending area, then open the same RAW again and then place one over the other in Photoshop, the blend the images and erase the layear where the over exposed area is.