Scaled Quail

[Doug Brown]

Thanks to a little pushing from Marina and Miguel, I've been spending a little time in my backyard doing some bird photography. It's a great time of year in the desert southwest; the Chamisas are all blooming, giving this BG its gorgeous yellow color. This is a Scaled Quail BTW. I'm going to do some experimenting with more DOF this weekend.

Canon 1Dx, 600mm II, f/6.3, 1/2000, ISO 400, manual exposure, tripod, throw blind

[Carl Walker]

Hi Doug - Can see why it is called a Scaled Quail. Pretty bird. The head look s very similar to our Go - away bird here. Love the creamy yellow background. Detail is good but my screen I'm not seeing to much on it's breast area. Great bird

[Rick Bowers]

Great Scaly portrait Doug! Eye contact is really nice. Looks a little light on my monitor but I literally just this minute got a one month calibration warning.

[Satish Ranadive]

Doug Sir,
What a wonderful details you have captured here on this beautiful Quail. Love the excellent IQ, beautiful lights,well groomed hair do and very nice BG.
Superb composition too.

Regards,
Satish.

[Richard Flack]

Awesome image Doug. What a beautiful bird. Love the detail, eye and BG. TFS

[Lyle Gruby]

Beautiful. The bird is perfectly lit. The shadow on the right side of the bird really lends a 3D feel to the image. I think it's a great idea to go with a smaller aperture to increase your DOF.

[Frank Schauf]

Beautiful portrait, great details and eye contact.

[vishaljadhav]

Guess i came on the forum today as i had to watch this one, Wonderful image
i can count individual feather in the crest , just perfect

[Markus Jais]

Great portrait. Perfect image quality, great composition and beautiful background. Head turn is perfect here.

Markus

[Randy Stout]

Doug:

Striking bird, that I haven't seen before. Sharp, great pose and bg.

I too thought it was a bit bright as presented. Personal taste really, but I ran a luminosity mask with multiply blend mode, 72%, with small amount of feathering of mask.

Just an option. I thought it did increase the sense of texture in the plumage.

Wish I had some of these in my backyard!

Cheers

Randy

[Sidharth Kodikal]

Excellent light, sweet details and a very nice BG, Doug. Love it.

[arash_hazeghi]

handsome portrait Doug!

[James Shadle]

Doug,
Beautiful subject, great background with head sharp head and eye.
Exposure looks good (depends on calibration, Randy's re-post looks real good).

I love the placement in the frame of your subject with a slight caveat. IMO a little more room above your subject would make this even stronger.

[Doug Brown]

Thanks for all the great advice everyone, and a special thanks to Randy for the repost. Here's my own reprocessed version with more room up top, a slight curves adjustment to bring down the darks, and a bit less desaturation of the yellows in the BG. Better or worse?

[James Shadle]

Nailed it!!!!

[Miguel Palaviccini]

That repost is a winner! The body facing you with the head turn is what makes it for me. No other way you get BOTH a great head angle and a good look at the detail in the "scales".

Glad you are getting more shooting done in your bg! Next step is to convince you to start printing :)

[Marina Scarr]

The RP is on the money!!!! What a killer natural BG you have here!!!

[MohsenVahedipour]

Very nice portrait with plenty of details, nice head turn & very well placement in the frame. Lovely BG. TFS

[Doug Brown]

Thanks again for all the input everyone!

[Tim King]

Nice crest. The OP is my choice. I also like the touch of light blue in the breast. Fine job.