African Sacred Ibis Wingspread

[Morkel Erasmus]

The African Sacred Ibis.

I took this in April in my hometown. We have a ton of them here.

Own nits: a bit of noise on the black head - applied some light NR. I have found that the air quality around here is very bad due to industry, and that has a significant impact on image quality. The smog also creates an interesting colour cast at sunset (yellowish) which I had to tone down significantly. The air quality also creates noise easily - I have found that other locations produce higher quality shots even from much farther off to the subject.

What I like here is the wingspread and detail in the white plumage. Please also assist with other crits and comments, I am here to learn from you guys!

[Mark Dumbleton]

Super light falling on this bird. Great pose and eye contact. Dont like that you have to click the thumbnail to view the image.

[Steve Canuel]

Interesting to read your notes about your shooting conditions. There is a slight bit of noise but I like what you did with the light/color cast. I like the tight comp and the under wing detail. The dark head looks a little over smoothed to my eye.

[Randy Stout]

Morkel:

Thanks for including the backstory about your image. Lovely wing spread, head angle.

I like it being placed on the diagonal, but the framing is too tight for my taste. I would add some canvas all the way around, with a slightly higher % addition to the front and bottom.

The head does look oversharpened on my monitor, as it looks a bit pasted on the BG.

Thanks for sharing.

Randy

[Ramon M. Casares]

Too tight in thre frame to my taste, but I loved it, great light, stunning pose, detail, expposure and colors! Big congratulations!

[Axel Hildebrandt]

I like the pose, details and light, too tight in the frame for my taste, too. There is a little bit of noise but it is not so bad. Could you please post the techs? It is really interesting to see the effect of pollution in late light.

I fixed the thumbnail, please post the image without a thumbnail, it saves an extra step. :)

[Morkel Erasmus]

thanks for the comment everyone. I will add some canvas and rework the head. Axel - how do I post using attachments without creating a thumbnail? I don't mind posting via photobucket etc but since I am a member I want to make use of the attachment facility without causing too much effort for people to view the image?

thanks for your assistance!

[Axel Hildebrandt]

thanks for the comment everyone. I will add some canvas and rework the head. Axel - how do I post using attachments without creating a thumbnail? I don't mind posting via photobucket etc but since I am a member I want to make use of the attachment facility without causing too much effort for people to view the image?

thanks for your assistance!

Actually, I'm a little puzzled how you manage to make this look like a thumbnail. :) If you click on 'manage attachment' below the text box, choose the image location on your computer and upload. Click on 'preview post' to make sure it looks right. Let me know if I can help.

[Stu Bowie]

Not sure what time of day this was taken, but it sure shows up as sweet light Morkel. Love the wing detail. Did you shoot with a + EC, as that would have brought out the detail in the head and neck.

[Morkel Erasmus]

Thanks Axel. My bad then. I clicked on the attachment icon a 2nd time, and it inserted an HTML script into the text box which, when the comment is posted, displays the thumbnail. I've got it now :D

This is an almost entire rework as I couldn't salvage detail on the head with the previous one. You'll see even less of the yellow cast here, and I've added more space all round but more in front and on top. This is about 55-60% cropped.

Stu - I did shoot with EC up 2 thirds? taken round-about sunset.

EXIF:
Canon 1000D with 100-400 L IS USM @ 260mm
f7.1 @ 1/800 @ ISO 400

[Juan Carlos Vindas]

Wonderful sacred bird!
Love the open wings and bill. I find it too tight for my taste. Great image anyways.

[Morkel Erasmus]

thanks Juan...

[Juan Aragonés]

This one is excelent Morkel. Love the warm light on th eibis and the fantastic pose of the bird. Th erepost is much, much better in terms of composition. I suggest to tone down the sky just a bit and to increase the saturation in the bird just a bit (perhaps +1 or +2 points) to increase the contrast between the blue color of the sky and the golden of the bird. Th ecatch light seems a bit large (and red?) Very good job!

[Chris Kotze]

Great show of the wings. Your repost look better. Well captured

[Morkel Erasmus]

thanks Juan

don't know what happened with the catchlight - fixed it now. tried darkening the sky and saturating a bird - has good effect but creates a funny dark line along the top of the wingspan?

[Tony Whitehead]

Sweet light and nice clean specimen. I like the diagonal of the wings. IMO the catchlight would be a lot better if much smaller.

[Morkel Erasmus]

okay I darkened the catchlight a bit. It was a bit overpronounced (I did some dodging on the original the first time I edited the shot a few months ago).

[Kobus Tollig]

I see you have been busy here. Great shot with great light. Like the pose.
The last one you posted is by far the best one. only thing that bothers me is the slight halo you have here. Well done on a great one

[Morkel Erasmus]

thanks bud I will rework it later (kind of g@tvol of this one by now hehe)