Laughing Kookaburra

[Colin Driscoll]

Staying with static poses as I get the hang of a few things!
R5 600 f4 2x III RF/EF adapter. Shot from inside the house through open door, supported on the back of a chair, bird on deck railing.
1/500 f9 ev iso2500 ev -.3
Full frame nothing added or cloned.
DPP4 PS2021 NR to BG only, USM to bird only.
Breeze-ruffled head feathers
Could have cleaned the beak up but liked it realistic in this case

[Gerald Kelberg]

Nice to have such colourful visitors to the railing on your deck! Nothing to laugh about!
Can't help but like that rufous kuif of feathers on the forehead and the dark brown eye. Excellent image detail.

Thanks for sharing,

Gerald

[Mike Poole]

Nothing wrong with this capture Paul, sharp, good shooting and head angle, personally the beak is fine for me as its natural, others may disagree, personal opinion etc.

Presentation wise, it looks to have a magenta cast (admittedly I'm only on the laptop at the moment ) but that's an easy fix, this RP was done by getting neutral number on the whites



Mike

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Colin ... very nice portrait of this species !!!
They are so cool and full of character , one had stolen once a steak from my braii

Good to see your development in your processing , as this one does look quite good .
Mike has sorted the WB issue with his RP .... i like to add that I would drop the NR settings in DPP as I think the feathers and bill are a tiny bit soft in the low frequencies ( LARGE DETAILS ) .

TFS Andreas

[gail bisson]

Excellent portrait with nice details.
I too, saw the magenta cast but Mike has fixed that perfectly.
Very well done Colin.
Gail

[Brian Sump]

Colin, I think the R5 did a bang up job here. Looks like you were pretty close. I would love to get down under and shoot all of your fun species one day!

I feel like maybe the image is underexposed? I'd bet you could have pushed exposure a good bit more in body and still recovered those highlights on the head, but I could be wrong.

Regardless, perhaps a little pp work to lighten the other areas? I usually HATE doing RP's on other folks' threads, but since Mike already took a crack, here's just another possibility (slight crop adjust):

[John Mack]

The reposts are much better than the original. I do like the tight graphic portrait though. Should have entered it for the theme.

[Colin Driscoll]

Thanks for the comments and re-posts. Mike, not sure about the magenta cast, I did check for that in PP. Your re-post loses a bit of richness from the browns.
Brian, sorry mate but your effort does get the natural coloring quite a bit off, much too orange overall. It was dull light and maybe I was 1/3 stop under but that's all.
You will definitely have to come and check them out some time COVID permitting. Open invite to visit our tree house, just PM.

[Brian Sump]

Thanks for the comments and re-posts. Mike, not sure about the magenta cast, I did check for that in PP. Your re-post loses a bit of richness from the browns.
Brian, sorry mate but your effort does get the natural coloring quite a bit off, much too orange overall. It was dull light and maybe I was 1/3 stop under but that's all.
You will definitely have to come and check them out some time COVID permitting. Open invite to visit our tree house, just PM.

Of course man, could be too much yellow. It's just a jpg and none of us were there with you but you can see what different exposure and warmth effects have.

Keep em coming...

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Colin a nice shot, but overall is a tad dark and I think as I said before, it's stemming from the laptop. Perhaps look at the grey scale strip at the foot of this page, this may help you in achieving a better rendition for your screen tilt so you have a solid black with a tonal range ending on white?

You have truckloads of nice detail in the image, albeit the eye is slightly hidden, easily rectified. Regarding WB, there is a slight magenta, but upping the Temp and adding more Green in the Tint starts to balance thing out, however it's the dominate Blue that is casting the main issue, get that sorted and you really start to see the capture coming alive.

Sorry, I meant to add Colin, use a cushion or bean bag on the chair too, it will help.

TFS
Steve

[Colin Driscoll]

Thanks Steve, of the three re-posts Mike's best retains the natural richness of the browns.
I use a PC for processing. When I had finished PP the histogram had a very narrow strip of magenta down the left and of blue down the right.
Moving the magenta and blue sliders in H&S did not make a perceptible difference to the image.
Agree with the eye which I had tried to lighten, and that it could have been a bit brighter overall, but it looked OK on the big screen.
There is no grey scale strip.

[Steve Kaluski]

When I had finished PP the histogram had a very narrow strip of magenta down the left and of blue down the right.

Hi Colin, no idea what you are referring to here, sorry?? As presented in the OP, the blue is quite dominate which you can visually see, so the image I feel is too cold hence using the WB module and going warmer, plus then addressing the magenta as previously mentioned. Obtaining a good WB is the bedrock to any image IMHO, as you can then take it in any direction thereafter, but the key is that you have all three RGB values balanced out and there is no bias to either one.

Moving the magenta and blue sliders in H&S did not make a perceptible difference to the image.

I have to disagree Colin, once you achieve an optimal WB whatever that might be, reducing the Blue did clean things up hugely, the bill is more neutral in colour for example, the magenta stems from the WB.

There is no grey scale strip.

Colin, if you look at the foot of the page, there is a Greyscale there.

[Arthur Morris]

Having never seen this bird in life, the reposts by Steve and Mike look the most natural to me. I would have eliminated the ? on the bill in a heartbeat. Image design and head angle are spot on. Good stuff by Steve not the grey scale strip.

with love, artie

[Steve Kaluski]

What’s the problem with the Greyscale strip Artie???