Violet - backed Starling

[Carl Walker]

There were 5 to 6 of these males competing for a single female and offered some good opportunities for photography.

HH
Canon 1D MK IV - 300 f2,8 plus 2 X extenders MK III
ISO 2500, f8, 1/4000 sec - ss was high anticipating flight - Manual

LR5 basics
PSE 9 - LM - NR on BG - USM

C&C welcome

[Sidharth Kodikal]

What an awesome bird, Carl. The iridescence shows up nicely in this light. I like your comp and the pose with the perfect head angle.
The image looks just a tad flat/hazy on my monitor, wonder if a pinch more contrast would help.
Nice work. TFS.

[David Salem]

What a great looking bird is right. The shot looks awesome. The pose, colors, perch and killer BG really look fantastic. The detail is all there also but I am seeing the same hazy look that Sid mentioned.
Either some contrast or maybe even start from scratch. The shot is good enough that it deserves another look. Very nice!

[Loi Nguyen]

Agreed with comments above. Awesome bird, good pose, details, but just a little flat. Loi

[Satish Ranadive]

Carl,
This Spectacular,wow ! wow !!! image. Love the pose,magical colors, great details and lovely composition.
I have applied some contrast to the image.I hope you like it. Seeing for the first time.Wish I could see it in real life. TFS.



Regards,
Satish.

[Grace Scalzo]

Satish is taking this image in the right direction. Wonderful bird, colors, and background. If this were my image, I'd start over on the processing and make the most out of this beauty.

[Richard Flack]

Awesome image Carl. Love the perch and BG. (Rest has been said. Repost is looking better). TFS

[Carl Walker]

Thanks everyone for your comments and guidance. I hope this is an improvement. Let me know please?

[Daniel Cadieux]

For the repost in pane #8 if you can get the details in the whites that you did in the original post that would be the best of all. Amazing colour this species has!!

[Carl Walker]

Last try here!

[Grace Scalzo]

This last repost looks superb. Would you please explain how you processed this as compared to the first one? I would love to learn.

[Mike Veltri]

What a stunning bird, thanks for sharing this one.

[Carl Walker]

Thanks Daniel, Grace and Mike.
Ah Grace I don't think I could teach you muchI took everyones advice as well as your own to start from scratch.

In the original post I think I went wrong when I started using colour curves in PSE under the Enhance Menu.

Last RP

LR5 - I kept most of the original settings except that I reset my highlights and white sliders to zero ( so that I could try working with whites as explained in this thread - http://www.birdphotographers.net/for...ead.php/114975 - Dan Brown mentioned a technique he uses to work on the whites which I attempted to apply it in PSE.

SInce I seem to have a slight problem with colour casts I always check the HSL sliders in LR for that. WIth this bird I found it a bit difficult due to the nature of the colour but seemed to sort out the blue cast in BG.

I also realised that I needed to bring out the yellow eye ring which is prominent in these birds. Used the brush tool with mode set to saturation ( in this I also pulled the temp slider across to the right to help bring out the yellow) I am never sure what techniques to apply correctly but I just fiddle until I think it is ok.

I also used the brush tool to apply some NR on parts of the bird and perch in the shadow areas.

PSE 9 - LM for bird - I made a few adjustment layers - sat, Levels, contrast, a new layer set to Soft light blend mode to work on the whites - I also did a 5% NR again in Neat image on selected areas of the bird - 2 rounds of USM on bird before resizing

I am not sure if this is the right approach but probably 95% of the images I capture and process I will return to at a later stage when my PP skills have increased significantly in order to bring out the best in them. Obviously, if my tech skills improve with the gear used I may not have to do so much PP work as you and so many others on this forum consistently show.

Thanks for your interest Grace. Much appreciated.

[Doug Brown]

I'm a little late to the game on this one, but what an incredible bird! And I love how you've taken this image from good to great with advice from forum members!

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Carl, Ive never seen one of these starlings in real life, and your repost in pane # 10 has really brought all the colour and detail. Couldnt ask for a better BG either.

Where did you capture this?

[Carl Walker]

Thanks Doug and Stuart.
Stuart this was up here in N KZN where I live. They used to be called Plumb colored Starlings