African Pied Starling

[Bill Nuttall]

African Pied Starling, (Lamprotornis bicolor)

Klein Karoo - S Africa - Dirt track - thorny scrub land

cropped to 15% of full FF image

D750 + 300mm PF + 1,4TC - HH from car

1/640th - f8 - ISO 450


Attachment 165493

[Colin Driscoll]

Not the most beautiful bird, but well taken. Perhaps a vertical crop for this one?
Edit, a bit of S&H in PS brings out more of the subtle colour.

[Bill Nuttall]

Thanks Colin - I quite like it's ugliness

but my favourite shot of this bird maybe too messy for here

Removed - only one image allowed

[Satish Ranadive]

Beautiful image . Not seen bird in real life.
Bg looks bit too bright on my monitor.
I have hurriedly darken it . You can do it better way in cs or any other software.


Satish.

[Bill Nuttall]

Beautiful image . Not seen bird in real life.
Bg looks bit too bright on my monitor.
I have hurriedly darken it . You can do it better way in cs or any other software.



Satish.

Thanks Satish - as far as I can recall the background in my original is good - the image was taken in semi desert scrub, (the K Karoo in S Africa) probably 40 degrees C + on the day as I remember from winding the window down, with blinding sun in the middle of the S African summer

IQ has dropped off with the size of the crop and dragging detail out of the dark areas with such a contrast in light I always find difficult

Thanks agin for taking to time to comment

[Geoffrey Montagu]

Well captured, Bill. From the way you describe the habitat, I would tone town the BG and FG a little, but maintain the arid quality. To me this is a interesting looking bird, and you have him perched nicely on that rock. The out of focus mound in FG gives the illusion of a nice low POV. One thing I noticed was the light fringe on the surrounding edge of the bird, which is very simple to remove.

Geoffrey

[Bill Nuttall]

Well captured, Bill. From the way you describe the habitat, I would tone town the BG and FG a little, but maintain the arid quality. To me this is a interesting looking bird, and you have him perched nicely on that rock. The out of focus mound in FG gives the illusion of a nice low POV. One thing I noticed was the light fringe on the surrounding edge of the bird, which is very simple to remove.

Geoffrey

Thanks Geoffrey - the repost is not mine

Is there a "light fringe on the surrounding edge of the bird" on my original posting?

Best

Bill

[Geoffrey Montagu]

Thanks Geoffrey - the repost is not mine

Is there a "light fringe on the surrounding edge of the bird" on my original posting?

Best



Bill

Yes it's in your original posting, but lighter, less visible because of the light BG. You can see it clearly in the post by Satish.

Geoffrey