Theme: Resplendent Quetzal

[Moe Richard]

Costa Rican cloud forest. Very close to me. 6am overcast. No flash allowed. Tiny avocado in beak.

iso 5000, 500pf, f5.6, 500th, handheld, full frame, DxO Photolab for NR on bird, Nik Define for NR on BG, minimal sharpening with Topaz A! Clear.

[John Mack]

Another neat Costa Rica bird. Love the pose and the way the tall curves. The perch is pretty big but i know this is what you had to work with. The avocado in the bill is neat.

[annmpacheco]

Nice processing Moe, love the curled tail and avacado. What camera body? Lovely colors and detail, would you post larger perhaps 1600 on vertical? Thanks

[arash_hazeghi]

I wish you had posted larger. the bird looks nice with a good BG and HA. it does look a bit over processed and unnatural as if too much sharpening contrast or one of these HDR/detail extraction filters applied to it....

TFS

[Mervyn Marsh]

What an awesome looking bird, nice shot and mood to it, the large perch doesn't effect it to much thanks to that long feathers, cheer, Merv

[Bill Dix]

Any clear shot of a Quetzal is a real prize. Great pose, and the perch is what it is. Larger post would be nice. The image feels a bit on the cool side to me.

[Moe Richard]

Here is a repost. iso 5000, D500, handheld,no flash, only processing is DxO Photolab with prime denoising, Nik/DxO Filters (Nik Define on BG), TK Sharpening action at 5% (default is 50%). Nothing else.
Arash and Dorian I really appreciate your comments on overprocessing. I think I have learned something
.

[dankearl]

I love the large repost...

[gail bisson]

Bigger post really helps.
Repost looks good.
You have a great bird, great clean BG and the curve of the tail creates a nice line.
Well done,

[arash_hazeghi]

larger is better for sure but it still looks over cooked to my eye, the edges of the feather have too much contrast to them. you shouldn't need all of these filters to get a nice natural looking image

if you want shoot me the RAW file and I will process it for you.

TFS

[Dorian Anderson]

This is really nice, the curled tail fitting in the frame nicely. I also like that you were high enough to get the little feet peeking out. Exposure and sharpness look really nice, but there is still some processing artifact/halo at the intersection of tail and background. I'll be curious to see what Arash can cook up if you send him the file; his processing skills are superior to my own.