Moulting Yellow-billed dumpster diver
Hi all. This is a moulting Yellow-billed Magpie, found only in the Central Valley of California. The capture was made with a shoulder stock mounted Nikon D200, 80-400mmVR at 400mm, 1/1600sec, f5.6, ISO 400, manual exp mode, fill flash - SB800 -2.0. PP in CS3, cropped a bit.
Dan Brown
Dan
I like Magpies.....just have never had an opportunity to photograph them. A nice look back and raised foot. This is certainly a bird that would be nice to get on a natural perch as well as what you have here. I think that the point of focus might have been on the shoulder as it seems sharper than the head/eye. I'd select just that area and go another round of USM. You did a nice job with the fill flash....not to much. I'm wondering if just a touch of Highlight/Shadow might bring out a bit more detail in the blacks. Just as with the sharpening.....a touch should do it.
I played with this a bit.......selected the head/eye for USM and then S/H on the selected bird. I may have gone a bit too much but I think you can get the idea.
Thanks Lana, your repost is an improvement in the sharpness, although on my laptop I am having trouble seeing the S/H difference. Dan
Dan interesting mooking bird and a nice pose. I can see an improvement in colouring in Lana's repost, particularly in the blues and blacks on the wings and shoulders.
Dan
You may not see much of a difference in the Blacks (especially on a laptop).....I wanted it to be subtle as too much usually looks over manipulated and it also can create noise.
Lana's re-post is exactly what I had in mind! Good looking bird!
Lana, I can see the difference on my decktop! Thanks. Dan
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