Red head

[Glenn Pure]

Sorry, nothing subtle here ladies and gentlemen but I hope it brightens your day. The bird is an Australian King Parrot (male) and they are quite common in many parts including around Canberra where I live. This one was photographed in the Australian National Botanic Gardens near the city centre. The bird, unusually, was on the ground under a bush. I had to lay down to get this shot. These birds can often be quite tame as people put out seed in their gardens for the various parrot species we have. This bird certainly wasn't bothered by my close proximity: the crop is probably about 80% of the full frame. I haven't done much fiddling to finish this.

Technical: Canon 80D with EF 100-400 MkII at 400mm handheld. Manual exposure 1/80 sec, f8, ISO 800. Processed in Canon DPP 4 (digital lens optimiser @ 50, sharpness = 3, 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 in PSE (Sharpness tool) after final size reduction.

[gail bisson]

I think I like the reflection of the beautiful australian sky in the pupil the best.
Good details in the reds.
The comp of this image feels off to me. Too square for my taste.
I love these Australian birds you are showing us!
Gail

[Alex Becker]

Great headshot and details throughout. I agree that a bit more room to the left would be good if you have it. Being nitpicky but maybe also smoothing out some of the highlights to the left right around the beak could help as well. A really pretty subject / frame. TFS

[Joseph Przybyla]

Hi Glenn, beautiful bird, nicely show. Gorgeous vibrant colors, nice background. I think if you can add canvas on the left side and crop to a 2x3 it will help the composition and boxy appearance that Gail mentions. Thank you for sharing.

[Gabriela Plesea]

Lovely portrait Glenn and beautiful detail, stunning colours and so is the BG. Nice framing too. Not sure there was a need for NR here, and try aim for higher SS if possible
Wonderful work, nice to see you posting in various forums

Kind regards, have a great week,

[Glenn Pure]

Thank you Gail, Alex, Joe and Gabriela for your thoughtful critiques. I will revisit this soon and hopefully repost if I'm happy with the result. Much appreciate your time and effort.

Not sure there was a need for NR here, and try aim for higher SS if possible

Thanks Gabriela, you may have missed the post I made on the Digital Photography Workflow forum explaining aspects of my workflow and why I do them, particularly NR. As for shutter speed, agree I could have upped the ISO here and gone for a faster SS. Just another bungle by me (not uncommon)! Having said that, provided my subject isn't making any rapid movements, I can get a high keeper rate even at low shutter speeds like this thanks to the wonder of image stabilisers in modern lenses and a reasonably steady hand. Thanks for your interest and have a great week!

[Glenn Pure]

Here's a 3:2 crop with more on the left and a touch more on the right to balance. Overall, I still prefer the original tighter crop but not strongly... appreciate any further views. Thanks again to you all.

[Jay Shah]

Another beautiful shot. Love the details and perfect exposure for saturated reds -not easy to do.

[William Dickson]

Very nice indeed Glenn. I like the original post best. Those colours are simply awesome, and along with the details you captured, makes for a very nice image. Good work mate.

Will