Tanzania Red Billed Hornbill

[Loi Nguyen]

Had this image from last summer, but i thought the head was not sharp enough and the white was difficult to see against the bright sky, but after seeing Arash's and Daniel's snowy owl images, I decided to give this image a try. I like the result and would appreciate your comments.

1DX
500f4 II + 1.4X III
1/1000
f5.6
ISO-500
BLURB Bean Bag from safari vehicle.
AI Servo focus on the back, not head of the bird (when I tried to move the focus point, the bird took off)
Cloned out a couple of highlights.
Cropped to ~ 2/3 of the original FF.

Thank you.

Loi

[adrian dancy]

I like the pose of the bird and the detail presented. The composition is not ideal. In my view the pale part of the background works against the image, I regret to say. It looks as though you have done some cloning to the branch on LHS of the bird and there is something not quite right around the contours of the bird's tail and branch in that the background immediately proximate to the tail and branch is slightly brighter than one might expect. To mitigate these problems you may be better off cropping to portrait mode and having another go at whatever the problem was that you have tried to deal with. Making the darker elements of the BG lighter will help.

[Martin Dunn]

Although your hornbill is pretty well exposed the problem for me is the patch of very light BG at top right which prevents any detail being visible on the bird's neck.

[Holger Leyrer]

Although your hornbill is pretty well exposed the problem for me is the patch of very light BG at top right which prevents any detail being visible on the bird's neck.

I agree with Martin. The exposure, sharpness, ... are ok. The problem is the very light BG. Maybe you can make it a little darker

[Lorant Voros]

Nice pose of the hornbill. I like everything about it, but the light BG. I would as well attempt to darken it.

[David Salem]

I have to agree. If that light spot wasnt there it would be a stellar image. Not the fault of your exposure or techs as they look great. I like the pose and the perch. Well done.

[Loi Nguyen]

Thank you everyone. I have to agree with you all on the unfortunate bright spot in the sky. This was the main reason I sat on this image for the longest time. I actually realized the bright sky would screw up the image and tried to stand on the seat to shoot down on the bird and eliminate the sky, but I was a bit slow and the bird took off. Thanks for your comments. Loi

[Gavin Slabbert]

Nice catch, a couple of issues as I see them. As everyone has mentioned the white patch behind the head is really distracting, and also part of your processing- selection has left a halo around the tail and left tip of the branch. The background for me is artificially over blurred for me.

[Jim Crosswell]

I like the preening pose, sharpness and exposure. Too bad about the bright BG at the head.