Swainson's Spurfowl

[Gabriela Plesea]

Image taken in the Kruger Park in September 2011, one early morning at six thirty am.

D300S
Nikon 500/F4
ISO 400
F6.3
-0.7EV
Shot on a misty morning after a long wait for the sun to come up. The -0.7 EV was just something I was trying at the time ( was busy reading about it in the camera book and thought I'd try it out, to see what it does to my images).

Cloned out a few tiny "whiskers" coming out of the tree trunk. Cropped quite a bit from the RHS, a tiny bit from the LHS. A noisy BG despite the low ISO.

Thank you for viewing-much appreciated,

[Sidharth Kodikal]

This is absolutely stunning, Gabriela. Amazing light and IQ. Your DOF has rendered almost everything nice and sharp. What was your SS? A bit more DOF, if possible, wouldn't have hurt, but what a beauty!

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Gabriela, I agree with Sid, absolutely stunning, nice light and excellent detail. If this is a big crop then the IQ seems to have held up well. You could just try a Curves adjustment in the half tone area to just darken the red area in the head and throat area, then by masking you can control the area and Opacity then, selectively add some USM, might bring a bit more detail out, but avoid the eye.
Looks like those late nights are paying off, well done.

TFS
Steve

[Karl Egressy]

Superb image quality and beautiful light, Gabriella.

[gail bisson]

This is awesome. Love the light and the perch. The feet are superbly visible.
IQ looks good for the large crop you mention.
Gail

[Jim Crosswell]

I like the pose, perch, light, BG and composition. A real beauty Gabriela!

[Danny Laredo]

Wonderful image. Excellent light and detail.

[arash_hazeghi]

lovely sweet light and details!

[Loi Nguyen]

Gabriela, lovely image in good light. The -0.7EV may have caused the BG noise that you mentioned, but the resulting image is quite beautiful. Did you have to bring up the exposure in post? Loi

[Vivaldo Damilano]

Awesome clarity for a big crop, love the light and perch, nicely done.

[Girish Prahalad]

great light & IQ. wonderful pose & perch as well.

[Gabriela Plesea]

Thank you for viewing and comments, I am so glad you liked this image-discovered it last night looking through forgotten folders...
Err...Sid, forgot to mention, shutter speed 1/1000s. My apologies
Loi, I think you are right about the -0.7 EV, it might well be the cause for the noise. I did bring up exposure to correct that, during processing.
Steve, I will take a look at the image again and apply your suggestions. Andre gave me similar advice last night but I was too tired to go back and make changes, these late nights might be paying off but I have to drag myself to work in the mornings

[Richard Flack]

Awesome image Gabriela. Crisp with awesome perch and BG. TFS

[mohammad reza shahab]

great light and IQ.wonderful pose & perch.

[David Salem]

I have always said "Its all about the light" and this shot shows that so well. Great looking shot Gabriella. Love all of it. Get out there early and you will be rewarded with killer shots like this one. Well done

[Gabriela Plesea]

Indeed David, it's all in the light-we are no longer searching for the best subject to photograph, we are chasing sweet light... Learnt my lesson, but every now and then I just cannot resist a beautiful sighting in poor light, testing camera and lens to their limits, and then expecting Photoshop to fix it all...You have some brilliant images in sweet light, and so does Arash. Lots to learn by just viewing your lovely posts

Thank you all for viewing and comments,

Have a beautiful day!

[keith mitchell]

Gabriela looks to me that you are learning quickly this looks superb.

Keith.

[John Robinson]

Great picture.
The light makes it.
JR