I captured this image last Saturday while driving along Blackpoint Wildlife Drive in Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, Merritt Island, Florida. Comments and critique welcomed and appreciated. Thank you for viewing.
Nikon D500
Nikon 500mm F/5.6 VR AF-S ED PF + Nikon 1.4 III, handheld through the open window of vehicle
1/5000 F/8 Matrix Metering EV -1/3 ISO 2200 Auto 1 WB, image captured at 700mm (1050mm 35mm Equivalent)
Post processed in Lightroom Classic, Photoshop CC 2022 and Neat Image for noise reduction, removed a few misplaced sticks/branches using Artie's divide and conquer method
Cropped for composition and presentation
Last edited by Joseph Przybyla; 12-13-2021 at 01:49 PM.
Joe Przybyla
"Sometimes I do get to places just as God is ready to have somebody click the shutter"... Ansel Adams
Hi Joe ... very nice , bummer about the twig crossing the subject . But i can live it .... as the subject is interesting enough for me.
Personally i might drop the exposure a bit , specially the lighter tones to create more depth and tonal range
TFS Andreas
Thanks Andreas for viewing and commenting. Here is a repost using your suggestions. I had left the twig extending into the bird because I thought the perch looked awkward without it, still had a good look at the bird.
Joe Przybyla
"Sometimes I do get to places just as God is ready to have somebody click the shutter"... Ansel Adams
KF looks good, the clone job is a bit obvious in the repost from the missing patterns, for me the main issue is the HA that is slightly away from us. nice exposure and details
Super tough to get close to these! I love the composition. The leaves add a lot here. Nice perch overall, except that little part going up - but good job with the trimming of it on the repost. As Arash mentions, the head angle is not the best as it is ever so slightly turned away from us.
KF looks good, the clone job is a bit obvious in the repost from the missing patterns, for me the main issue is the HA that is slightly away from us. nice exposure and details
TFS
Hi Arash, thank you for viewing and commenting. The repost was a quick edit to show the image with that part of the perch removed. I agree regarding the missing patterns, trying to use the Patch Tool to fill in the missing perch I could not find matching feathers in the right direction for the pattern. Maybe with a lot more work and time spent that could be accomplished but I do wonder if possible. Easy to do when there is no pattern involved, such as pure backgrounds. Here is another image of the kingfisher with a better head angle, I knew I should have one amongst all the images I captured till the bird flew away. Thanks again...
Joe Przybyla
"Sometimes I do get to places just as God is ready to have somebody click the shutter"... Ansel Adams
I thought that the repair was both needed and well done. But I do agree with Arash on the serious head angle problem ...
with love, artie
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