Black Vulture Portrait

[Bill Foxworthy]

My first post again after being off a while. This was taken at Myakka River State Park earlier this year.
1/125, f/5.6, ISO 400, monopod with a 100-400 L lens at 400mm, early am, 8:30ish
Canon 50D or 5D MKII cant find the original file
Hope you like it!

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Very nice portrait, I like the soft light, eye contact and BG. Maybe a bit more sharpening and a slight contrast boost? Good to see you posting again.

[Bill Foxworthy]

Thanks Alex, I saw that after posting. Forgot to upload. I am too rusty I guess. :)

[Manos Papadomanolakis]

beautiful bg`s color,light and pose!!!

[Kiran Poonacha]

Lovely portrait this, great HA, details and light.. yeah sure does need some sharping and level adjustments.

[Bill Foxworthy]

Thanks guys, does look like I lost some sharpness. Probably from re-working again too many times from the original. This has won a couple of times on POTD sites. I appreciate your thoughts. :)

[Keith Carver]

Great pose, beautiful BG colors. Head front sharpness seems OK to me although I agree a little contrast tweak would help. Nice post, Bill.

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Loved the way the texture is captued here. Nice head angle. I suspect there is a slight camera shake. With a monopod and f-length 400mm, I wud have gone with a higher ISO and then NR on the BG.

KD

[Daniel Cadieux]

Hey Bill! Good comp, and a nice head turn. I like the BG colours. The suggested tweaks should definitely be implemented. I would probably darken the darker part of the pupil too. Or those small water drops or dust particles on the plumage?

[Hugh J McLaughlin]

NIce portrait that will be enhanced by the previously mentioned critiques.

[Bill Foxworthy]

Hi Keith, Kaustubh and Daniel, thanks. This was an early morning image and it was already hot in Florida. The spots are dust or Dandruff of some kind. Natural to the bird, I guess. :)

[Herb Houghton]

Nice pose and composition, I agree with the previous suggestions related to sharpening and levels adj or possibly less of a crop to increase the clarity.
Herb

[Ramon M. Casares]

IMO it could go darker and some USM would also help, nice portrait thogh.
Congratulations!

[Bill Foxworthy]

Here is the original image that I did up. I may have lost detail on a re-size. Maybe not though! Let me know if Better, same or worse.
Thanks
Bill

[Keith Carver]

Here is the original image that I did up. I may have lost detail on a re-size. Maybe not though! Let me know if Better, same or worse.
Thanks
Bill

I like the original image better - better feather detail.