High-key Turkey Vulture

[shane shacaluga]

On my recent trip to the Amazon jungle i visited a small river town called Nauta. The port and fish market were quite close to each other and where they gutted the fish lived a large colony of these ugly birds

Light was quite harsh and cloudy so decided to try and high key image. In order to get the blacks well exposed and with little noise I concentrated on exposing to the right while keeping the ISO as low as possible. This meant finding somewhere to rest my lens. A banister across a bridge was a great place to do this

D800e
300f4 + 1.7x TC
f8
1/500
ISO 400

usual post processing techniques. Lightened face very slightly and darkened pupil. Selectively sharpened subject and decreased saturation of the blues

Thanks for viewing

[gail bisson]

Hi Shane,
It is so hard to do a high key image of a dark bird and you have done well.
I see some cloning artifacts next to left side of the perch so would clean this area up.
I really like the slightly raised neck fearhers and that looong middle toe.
I wonder if a very slight boost to the contrast might add to this picture?
Gail

[shane shacaluga]

Thanks a lot Gail ;)

I dont know why that cloning artefact is showing when i upload as it does not show on Photoshop! Very strange but anyway here is a rework adding more contrast and hopefully no cloning artefacts showing

[gail bisson]

Better!

[Miguel Palaviccini]

Great work on the re-post. The added contrast was needed. Overall a nice high key image

[keith mitchell]

Shane don't think I can make anymore suggestions to what you have had, this looks like a great piece of work on what must be a difficult subject.

Cheers Keith.

[Nancy Bell]

I like the repost. High key is a good way to go with such a strong image and harsh light. Nice pose with the vulture looking over its shoulder, into the image. Places where fish are gutted are great locations for photographing the birds that are attracted. Once I did this surrounded by pelicans and discovered 1) pelicans are huge, 2) those wings can really deliver a blow!

[Juan Carlos Vindas]

Like the repost and image. This is a black vulture, not a turkey vulture.

[shane shacaluga]

Thanks for confirming the ID Juan Carlos. In Spain the Black Vulture is a totally different species so I was a bit confused

Thanks everyone for your comments

Regards

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Shane, great looking vulture, and well done on the overall exposure. Before reading Gail's coment, I felt a touch more contrast would do the trick which your repost confirms.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Shane, I once posted a high-key image (coincidentally of a vulture!!) where I had cloned out a branch in the BG. No artifact was visible at all but a member commented that there were some artifacts visible and needing of some cleaning up. I was puzzled, but when I then saw my image on an ipad I was aghast at the seemingly bad job I had done.

Good image overall, the square crop works well. Added contrast is an improvement.

[shane shacaluga]

Thanks Daniel, I realised after the comment, that if I tilted my laptop screen it was in fact very visible. So now before saving the pic i will tilt the screen and double check nothing will appear ;)