Turkey

[Ilija Dukovski]

I really had hard time with this guy. I could not move back far enough to get him in the
frame so I had to take off the TC and lay flat in the grass.

Nikon D80 Nikkor 300mm f/4.0 1/1250 Pattern AP-0.67 ISO400
Hand held Full frame, increased saturation, contrast and QMed bright spot, sharpened.

[Jeff Cashdollar]

What was you subject distance and how did you get this close, Its a big bird, that helps. Looks like a fence line in the BG might intersect his head. Maybe clone or QM to smooth out and transition the light green patch to the left of Tom's head, nice capture.

[Morkel Erasmus]

great DOF, nice and sharp. I agree on cloning out the fenceline.

[Mital Patel]

what a fantastic shot this is. i would have clone out that fence line and a slight NR would have made this more interesting.

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Impressive pose, good angle and details. I find the fence post left of the head a bit distracting and might give it a bit more room at the top.

[Arthur Morris]

I like it. Pointing the camera up just a bit would have been better. You did a great job with a tough exposure. Please let us know how you metered.

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

Well done, my only nits would be the fence wires, tightness in the URC and the light patch there too - though that is being picky. Otherwise it's fine for me. :)

[Ilija Dukovski]

What was you subject distance and how did you get this close, Its a big bird, that helps. Looks like a fence line in the BG might intersect his head. Maybe clone or QM to smooth out and transition the light green patch to the left of Tom's head, nice capture.

Jeff, the distance was at most 50 yards. It kept moving and displaying.
I had fence behind me so could not move away from it.

[Ilija Dukovski]

what a fantastic shot this is. i would have clone out that fence line and a slight NR would have made this more interesting.

Mital, do you mean NR or blur in the BG. I don't think I see noise here.

[Ilija Dukovski]

Impressive pose, good angle and details. I find the fence post left of the head a bit distracting and might give it a bit more room at the top.

Thanks Axel,

There was a bright patch on the right, so I spent most of the QM there. Only when you pointed it out I saw the bluish post. Good catch, thanks.
Also, I agree, should add canvas on top.

[Ilija Dukovski]

I like it. Pointing the camera up just a bit would have been better. You did a great job with a tough exposure. Please let us know how you metered.

Thanks Artie,

I agree didn't pay enough attention to the BG, didn't notice the fence.

I metered AP pattern, and watched the red flashing highlights. I stopped to the point they disappeared and then backed 1/3. I tried to have only very small patch or flashing red on the head. Well this is what I tried.
The bird was moving so I ended up with more flashing highlights than I intended. I managed to recover however in Camera Raw. It is interesting that in the final sized jpeg the head looks brighter than in the full sized tiff. I guess some averaging of the reds happened in the conversion (less number of pixels in the end) that resulted in loss of detail.

[Ilija Dukovski]

Well done, my only nits would be the fence wires, tightness in the URC and the light patch there too - though that is being picky. Otherwise it's fine for me. :)

Thanks Akos

Actually there was a white bright spot on the URH corner that made me work for an hour to get rid of.
Didn't have enough matching material to cover it.

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

HI Ilija

Why not take some color/texture from the ULC? Try that perhaps. :)

[Ilija Dukovski]

HI Ilija

Why not take some color/texture from the ULC? Try that perhaps. :)

I guess I could try, the URH has this brownish-gray tone not present in other parts. Perhaps I should try from scratch again.

Thanks for the suggestion...