Lilac-breasted Roller

[Rich Reich]

Tarangire National Park, Tanzania
Nikon D-800, ISO 400, 1/250 sec, f/11, 400mm (new Nikon 80-400mm lens)
9/21/13

While the leaves by the tail are a bit of a distraction I was in a vehicle where I could not control the position. The colors on this bird are just beautiful.

All comments are appreciated.

[Paul Click]

Nice image. Yes his colors are beautiful, but his "song" is among the most pitiful I have heard—on par with the screech of a Yellow-headed BlackBird!

[Karl Egressy]

Great looking bird. Nice colors pose and background, Rich. I find it too tight in the frame.

[Rich Reich]

I gave it more room. I think this is better. Thanks for the input.

[Iain Barker]

Nice Image Rich I prefer the repost to the original.

[Grace Scalzo]

That repost is such an improvement. You have a beauty here.

[christopher galeski]

Beautiful image,love the BG.nice comp,repost better,

[MohsenVahedipour]

Nice repost with nice colors & BG.

[Gabriela Plesea]

Hi Rich,

I really like the RP, lovely colours and now the comp is perfect! I might be wrong, but if this were mine I would give it another round of sharpening? Especially on the eye. Lovely image overall, I so like these birds, I often see -and hear them- in my village in South Africa. Well done Rich, TFS

Kind regards,

[Jonathan Ashton]

A really beautiful image, it is sharp but would consider just a little more sharpening, I sense there is a tad more detail to be had.
(I am saying this because I have just viewed Artie's recent post).

[Rich Reich]

After encouragement from a few of you I gave further sharpening a try. First I selectively lightened the eye a bit and applied additional sharpening. There is a light ring around the eye that now gives it more prominence. I also slightly increased mid range contrast of the whole image and applied a bit of additional sharpening. The adjustments were made in Lightroom 4.

Thanks so much for your feedback. It resulted in a stronger image. Are the changes visible enough have improved the last image?

Thanks.

[Jonathan Ashton]

I think the last image is the best.