May I join you?

[Jay Shah]

Pleased to share an image of Devoted Mom and Dad bringing food for the baby Blue tailed Bee-eater.

added canvas and had to work on the tail of the bird in flight. Post processing by PSCC2017.


Nikon D500, 600 mm F4
f6.3, 1/8000, ISO 2500 (of course for this shot could have done with much lower ISO as 1/8000 is an overkill for SS, but it was a partially cloudy day and light was changing from bright sunlight to low, diffused light. So did not want to lose some of the shots by fiddling with ISO).

C&C most welcome.

[Michael Thompson]

Really cool looking birds, and with their insect meal is a plus. Nice background. what is the darker area around the right bird's bill? I would crop some off the top.

[Daniel Cadieux]

That was pretty cool that you witnessed the double-prey poses. Tough light with high contrast. The processing needs cleaning up, with dark ghosting around the birds, and repeating patterns on the lower part of the perch. I do realize you added canvas below, which was the right idea. I'd also crop some from the top as there is too much space up there. Best get it right in camera, tough at times with action! Could you have pointed your lens down, especially if this was a repeatedly used perch?

[Melissa Usrey]

WOW!!!! Magnificent photo!

[arash_hazeghi]

it's very cool to get both own focus and with a food item too! In addition to the comments by Daniel I see a strong sharpening halo around both birds and the dragonfly with a bit coarse looking details. The BG is nice but the OOF part of the perch is distracting.

TFS

[Jay Shah]

Daniel,

Good and helpful comments. Thanks a lot.

[Jay Shah]

Thank you for additional comments. For last few images, I was following extreme sharpening before reducing size of the image. Idea is that what looks awful, will become OK once file size is reduced from say 40 MB to 300KB. But it does not seem to work. I am going to follow your method of sharpening reduced image only.

Now that you and Daniel mentioned, I can see halos. Is there a trick that even a 'blind person' can see halos? and using clone stamp with darken blend mode is the best way to deal with halos once you somehow have them?

[Jay Shah]

Thanks Michael for your comments. I am not sure what it is..but it is not in the raw file.. don't remember working in that area but for sure it need to be dealt with. I was trying to respect rule of the third, but agree can remove some of the dead space.

I think I may not get the same frame again, so will reprocess this one with more care so that it becomes a keeper. Cheers !

[Arthur Morris]

Jay, All of the comments above are accurate. But nobody mentioned that there is much too much room on the top of the frame, all wasted space with nothing happening ... If you would like to send me the RAW file by some sort of large file transfer service I'd be glad to take a crack at it. If yes, send it to me here: samandmayasgrandpa@att.net

with love, artie

[Daniel Cadieux]

But nobody mentioned that there is much too much room on the top of the frame, all wasted space with nothing happening ...

Except me

[Arthur Morris]

Except me

Sorry Dan :) with love, artie

[Arthur Morris]

Hi Jay, Thanks for sending the RAW file. I was pretty much shocked at the noise levels at ISO 2500 with the D500, especially because the exposure was perfect. The noise was so bad that when I used the Patch Tool all kinds of artifacts were introduced so I had to work around that. I hope that you like my crop; I know that Dan will :) As for your image processing, you did better than me with the tail repair, but no so good with the added perch. And whatever you tried to do by sharpening and whatever you tried to do by the head and bill of the right-hand bird were disastrous.

IAC, lmk what you think. I did run NeatImage NR on the background only.

And yes, the new Current Workflow e-Guide (DB II) was released yesterday. See the next pane. Everything I did while working on your image is in the guide.

with love, artie

[Arthur Morris]

The BIRDS AS ART Current Workflow e-Guide (Digital Basics II) will teach you an efficient Mac/Photo Mechanic/Photoshop workflow that will make it easy for you to make your images better in Photoshop (rather than worse). That true whether you convert your images in DPP 4 or ACR. Scroll down to read a free excerpt.
You can order your copy from the BAA Online Store here, by sending a Paypal for $40 here, or by calling Jim or Jennifer weekdays at 863-692-0906 with your credit card in hand.

New purchasers who do not want to miss anything and those who need the BreezeBrowser Pro/Downloader Pro information, may wish to save $15 by ordering the Digital Basics/Digital Basics II Bundle for only $50 by clicking here, by sending a Paypal for $50 (with DB/DB II mentioned) here, or by calling Jim or Jennifer weekdays at 863-692-0906 with their credit card in hand.

Learn more about the guide by checking out yesterday's "It's a Miracle" blog post here. The post has a free excerpt and a big list of what's included.

with love, artie

[Jay Shah]

Artie,

Its an honour that you chose to PP my image. And yes, looks much better. This is the first site I am posting images where so many really experienced and excellent bird photographers provide constructive criticism. It motivates me to take better pictures and put in the care and attention it takes in PP. Thanks a lot.

[Arthur Morris]

Artie,

Its an honour that you chose to PP my image. And yes, looks much better. This is the first site I am posting images where so many really experienced and excellent bird photographers provide constructive criticism. It motivates me to take better pictures and put in the care and attention it takes in PP. Thanks a lot.

You are most welcome. I have been remiss in that I have not been spending much time on BPN over the past 18 months mostly due to an insane travel schedule. I have three more big trips coming up this summer and then I will have almost 18 months off so folks will be seeing me here a lot more, like it or not :)

with love, artie

[Michael Thompson]

Except me

and me too!

[Arthur Morris]

and me too!

Oh no! with love, artie