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Thread: Alcedo pusilla

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    Default Alcedo pusilla

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    The appropriately named little kingfisher is the smallest kingfisher in Australia, so small it only has 3 toes, two pointing forward (trait shared with the larger Azure). 11cm tall, found only in gloomy spots in the mangroves, so hard to see much definition in the whites in the image... Background here is mud bank and mangrove roots.
    600mm, 1/1000, f4, ISO5000.

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    BPN Member William Dickson's Avatar
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    Well done on getting this little beauty Greg. I really like the colours, seems like it would be a difficult shot to get close up. Thanks for sharing as I have never seen one before.

    Will

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    BPN Member dankearl's Avatar
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    Crazy color...Nice look at this little guy.. TFS.
    Dan Kearl

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    Lifetime Member gail bisson's Avatar
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    You are right on the money about the difficult environment they live in. It is so dark where they live and they are always on the move.
    They are beautiful birds and I wish I had been able to get a shot of them.
    I would do some more NR on the BG. If not against your ethics I would clone out the white areas in the BG or paint them blue like the other areas. I find they pull the eye away from the KF.
    Whites are a bit hot in some spots.
    Good image considering the high level of difficulty capturing these elusive birds.
    Gail
    How much did you crop?

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    Neat looking kingfisher. The perch and pose on the bird are nice. The shooting environment sounds very challenging.

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    Lifetime Member Colin Driscoll's Avatar
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    What a cutie, looks like it has had some ink splashed on its white feathers. Agree with the need for on the BG and working on the bright patches.

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    Thanks all for the comments and critique.
    Colin and Gail: agree I need to take this into PS and work on the background. I'll repost if I gan improve, particularly re the white lobs behind the little bird.
    Gail: this was not a large crop, probably 80% of the original, there was an ugly part on the perch lower down. Your question may also be related to the whites and detail there. I don't see the whites blown, although I did up the exposure half a stop in post, I could back that off a little to make them less hot. I looked closely at this a long time to see if I could get more 'texture' in the whites, the focus is sharp but the there is not much to see in the all-white parts. I think this is just because the light is so diffuse, no directional light to bring out any shadowing in the feathers. It is also getting to the point of high ISO, although it wouldn't be a problem if there was more contrast in the light.
    It is an amazingly clean bird given the muddy habitat in which it lives!

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    Here is a repost trying to take into account the critique. I don't normally use these tools, so I could probably do a better job, particularly with the selection of the bird, but it does, I think, illustrate the benefits suggested in the critique.

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