Little Penguin (C)

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

Captured in a local wildlife park. This tiny little penguin also has a colony in Sydney, though off limits to public, sadly a week or so ago some animal apparently ravaged through that colony and slaughtered 9 penguins. Sad, as they are not common at all. There were snipers ready to kill whatever it was. Possibly a feral fox. (As much as I love foxes, they are classed as vermin here sadly).

30D, 300mm f/4L IS USM, EF 1.4x, ISO1600, f/5.6, 1/640th, tripod, no flash. Probably one of my best images out of about a 100. FF.

[Erich Stevens]

Fantastic detail, Akos. I love the profile shots and this one's a winner. The highlights in the white feathers are a bit blown though. I'd burn them in some.

[Jackie Schuknecht]

Lovely shot Akos, is this a fairy penguin? Nice and sharp and I like the side portrait shot.

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

Fantastic detail, Akos. I love the profile shots and this one's a winner. The highlights in the white feathers are a bit blown though. I'd burn them in some.

Hi Erich
Thank you for your kind comment. I attach a snapshot of my RAW file in ACR. I enabled the black and white clip warnings in the histogram (see the arrows in the histogram box, both pressed). I have no red highlights in any of the whites indicating clipping. :) And best of all, I cannot see blue spots to indicate clipped blacks.

See this Educational Resources thread started by Artie.

Thanks again.

Jackie,
Thanks for looking this species is Eudyptula minor, yes apparently aka Fairy Penguins. See this. :)

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

This is how you see clipped whites (red) and blacks (blue) in ACR with the preview in histogram "on".

[Phil Ertel]

Very nice portrait. I like the head angle as in my opinion it gives just enough interaction between the viewer the bird. Great detail with a pleasing background. I do not see blown whites in you original post. Good show and thanks for sharing.

[Brian Barcelos]

This is fantastic Akos, Beautiful portrait. Hope you hang this one on the wall! BG is great tack sharp and the details in the feathers are awesome. Congrats.

Brian

[Amy Marques]

Hi Akos. The image is extremely sharp and I love the soft background. It all looks nearly painterly.

[Fabs Forns]

You are good with head portraits, Akos. This is impressive, great detail, and beautiful detail in the feathers.
EXP looks good to me.

[Ramon M. Casares]

In the OP the whites looks a tad hot, too, but they can be easily recovered.
Great light, BG, detail, sharpness, comp and species.
Congratuklations amigo!

[denise ippolito]

Akos, Beautiful details and exposure looks good to me. I love the comp. Nicely done!!!

[Juan Carlos Vindas]

Hola Akos!

Man this is a special image and I really like it. I don't see any hot pixels here but I have to admit that I would tone some white parts a little.
With that SS you could have stopped down more IMO.

[Stu Bowie]

Super portrait mate. I really the sharpness in this, especially the detail on the beak. Good job on the eye, and what a killer BG. I can see why you chose this image from the rest.

[Ryan Lambert]

WE have had this debate elsewhere before and sometimes we need to realize that in Nature whites can actually be white, so in my opinion the whites here are not blown, really good detail and bg captured here...congrats

[A_Maddah]

Hi Akos
Lovely Portrit.I realy like his trenchant look.
Bg ,sharpness ,detail and look are killer.

Asad

[Jenny Wren]

Akos, As you know, I am a complete novice with photography and the tech side of things and have ventured out of ETL...but I know what I like. This shot is great. I love the detail in the wet feathers, his eyes and beak. It is sad to know the little penquin may not be alive. I know first hand the damage and distress of foxes and or dog attacks.

[Stephen Earle]

As Fabs said, you're portraits always amaze me. You sure get the best out of that 300 f4. Canon should pay you for the advertising.

[David Fletcher]

Cracking shot! No issues on the whites either! Fabulous portrait Akos. Congratulations on a fine shot.

[Leo Berzins]

Wonderful portrait, Ákos.
It's sad that we seem to have largely consigned these delightful birds to islands, but hopefully images like this will help in the push to properly protect the few remaining mainland colonies.

[Randy Stout]

Akos:

Lovely portrait, the eye is a killer, really draws me in, even though it is fairly subdued.

I tend to be too sensitive to overexposed areas, and try not to worry about a few hot pixels anymore. Your raw file certainly looks fine in ACR. The jpeg as presented, looks great too, but when opening it in NX2 there are a number of hot pixels in the whites. When opening in PS CS4, just a few at 255. Perhaps Erich opened the file in a program that showed these "hot areas".

The difference in the jpeg can be just from the conversion, sharpening for web after conversion, etc.

It is a fine image, I just wanted to chime in on why Erich may have thought the whites were blown. I know I have had the same reaction in the past.

Randy

[Erich Stevens]

It is a fine image, I just wanted to chime in on why Erich may have thought the whites were blown. I know I have had the same reaction in the past.

Randy,

I initially looked at the image at home last night on my 5+ year old laptop, and based my comments on that. This morning at work looking at it on a newer pro-quality monitor the highlights look much better. I can see a lot more detail. So I attributed the alleged blown highlights to the limitations of my laptop screen. There still looks to be a few hot pixels but the histogram doesn't lie.

[Nagesh Mula]

This is beautiful. I love the close capture and the sharpness from eye to the tip of the beak. Congrats!!

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

I am humbled at so many wonderful comments friends. I thank each and every one of you for taking the time to look and respond. :)

[Morkel Erasmus]

only seeing this now bro. what sublime detail in this!!! exposure looks great to me. just adding my very well done. that eye is insane!

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

Thanks a million Morkel for your kind words. :)

[Gal Shon]

Fantastic image,
The eye does it for me,

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

Thanks for taking a look Gal. :)