Red-billed Oxpecker casting an admiring look at his young friend, or maybe just scanning his ear for ticks.
D500, Sigma 150-600C @ 600mm, 1/500s @ f/7.1 manual.
Best Friends Forever
Red-billed Oxpecker casting an admiring look at his young friend, or maybe just scanning his ear for ticks.
D500, Sigma 150-600C @ 600mm, 1/500s @ f/7.1 manual.
Friends indeed. Nice how they both gave you a good pose. Detail looks good on the bird.
A lovely looking frame Bill. Couldn't have asked for a better HA on the bird. Priceless expression. Lovely colour and detail throughout. Love the title.
Will
What a beauty, Bill. Love the bird looking at the young male Impala(?) and the Impala looking at you. Was this much of a crop?
Hi Bill, like the capture and the two sort of 'balance' each other nicely. OX P's are very nice birds to photograph, although their 'ethics' to keep wounds open so they can feed may perhaps them less attractive. Another from Kewtsani, cool.
The image however Bill I don't feel is up to your 'usual' standard and as Glenn touched on, is this a large crop? The image looks coarse in terms of sharpness, highlighted more in the Ox P and body coat of the Impala, for me the 'critical' sharpness isn't there. So it's a large crop compounded with a bit too much Sharpening and or Clarity IMHO. You didn't mention ISO, but if it was quite low then certainly more DoF I think would have helped, the BKG I think would have been also far enough away to provide a defused backdrop. I would also look at the WB, it has a shade of magenta, so based on the OP (albeit a 256 colour file) Temp -2 Tint -20 will give you an almost perfect 50/50/50 to then take the image in whatever direction you want to, but it eliminates any casts creeping in. A more accurate and defining WB will be achieved from the RAW as you know.
All the best
Steve
Thanks all. Steve, I agree on all counts. This does not have quite the critical sharpness (OxP and Impala's coat) that I would have liked; they do feel a bit coarse. I was probably doomed from the start. ISO which I forgot to mention was 3200 on a cloudy day, and I cropped it to about 56% of full width. I see some magenta tint in parts of it although I think the whitish parts of the Impala are just about neutral.
That's a real shame Bill as I think it has some lovely qualities. I have no idea on what the ceiling is for ISO on the D500, but 3200 isn't too much these days and normally your techs, as far as I'm concerned, are always on the ball, with good DoF & SS. As I have no idea on the PP steps, it still might be worth revisiting the file, or is it not that sharp at the Raw stage?Thanks all. Steve, I agree on all counts. This does not have quite the critical sharpness (OxP and Impala's coat) that I would have liked; they do feel a bit coarse. I was probably doomed from the start. ISO which I forgot to mention was 3200 on a cloudy day, and I cropped it to about 56% of full width. I see some magenta tint in parts of it although I think the whitish parts of the Impala are just about neutral.
Bill with some simple changes and with the RAW I think it's worth revisiting, get the WB more in tune, get the whites in the ears with a bit more oomph, add a tiny spoonful of saturation and it breathes a bit more life into the frame. Hard to remove the 'coarseness' but it's bit better. The greens are perhaps a bit too vibrant, but it's the overall look & feel rather than trying to be too specific.
Thanks Steve. Yes, I think the greens are too saturated here, but otherwise it's an improvement. I would have to go back to the master file and revisit the sharpening to see if the coarseness could be reduced.
Bill, as I have said before, I don't know what you use to process with, but you could find it's a culmination of things, ISO Noise, Crop, Clarity/Contrast, Sharpening, etc... not just one element may not be the culprit. The master file is what it is and may or may not have some input sharpening, the CRITICAL element is - is it sharp, however it's the Output sharpening that is applied after Exporting ie (1600 x 1200) which is the perceptual sharpening element that counts. Every time you export from the master file you need to be applying some Output sharpening. That is why I like LR and how it Exports. But trust me, sharpening isn't just what the software offers, there is a huge wealth of different techniques to sharpening.I would have to go back to the master file and revisit the sharpening to see if the coarseness could be reduced.
Great choice out of the numerous poses we had of the Oxpeckers and Impalas together. Like the curious look from the Impalla, and the gaze from the Oxpecker. Techs have been covered.
Geoffrey
http://500px.com/geoffreymontagu
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