Red-rumped parrot

[Glenn Pure]

This was a very lucky shot. These birds are small and fast-moving, often flying erratically just to make life difficult. Also lucky because it was the only frame in the burst that was good, and with wing position a bonus. I have cloned out a smudge just behind the bird's rump. The background is an OOF dam at a golf course close to home. The bird had been perched on a dead branch in the water drinking as I waited and hoped. The crop is fairly severe and represents just over an eighth of the frame.

Thank you for looking and any comments you may have.

Technical: Canon 80D with EF 100-400 (MkII) at 400mm handheld. Manual exposure 1/2500 sec, f7.1, ISO 1000 - in hindsight a wider aperture and faster SS would have helped. Processed in Canon DPP 4 (digital lens optimiser, crop, lighting adjustments, default NR) then exported 16 bit TIFF to Photoshop Elements with Neat Image NR plugin. Very light NR applied to bird and stronger NR to background. Sharpened after size reduction (bird only).

[Gerhard Weldhagen]

You are indeed lucky to get this shot! They are fast erratic flyers and their diminutive size doesn't help either. The detail and colour on the bird looks accurate and it pops very well against the background. Very nice wing position, the wing tips appear a little soft but that`s understandable given the circumstances. Well done on getting a difficult flight shot.

Cheers

Gerhard

[Jay Shah]

Hi Glenn. Nice capture. Yes, BIF is always challenging and very rewarding when we do get it right as in this image. Like the expression in the bird's eye. BG is beautiful. Assume you lost some details due to crop. Assume bird must be becoming small if you did not crop the tail.

[John Mack]

Nice frame of this parrot good wing position and background nice light as well.

[arash_hazeghi]

love the wing position and the BG, this is a very tough shot to get and you did well, I wish the sharpness was a bit better especially on the head, was the RAW sharp?
TFS

[Glenn Pure]

Thanks Arash. Head was as sharp as it's ever going to get with that lens. I've squeezed what I can from the RAW with DLO and modest 'sharpness' (set to 3). I was pleasantly surprised when I opened it on my screen. However, it has suffered from the severe crop. Lack of sharpness on the wing is simply too slow shutter speed, as you probably have realised. Below is a 1:1 crop from the RAW with no further adjustments other than those mentioned.

love the wing position and the BG, this is a very tough shot to get and you did well, I wish the sharpness was a bit better especially on the head, was the RAW sharp?
TFS