Jackal Buzzard

[Elmar Venter]

EOS 50D
400 f5.6
ISO 500
1/2000
f 5.6
Exp comp: +0.33

[Dave Barnes]

Super capture Almar. Love the open bill. On the comp side I would like to see more space above and less below as he is looking up. I think the BG is a tad over saturated.

[David Fletcher]

Excellent shot Elmar. Love the calling pose too. Suggests the attention of other birds nearby. With Dave on the crop suggestions and would run some nr on the bg to polish this off. Fine shot and would be happy to have this.

[Randy Stout]

Elmar:

Good advice above re: noise in background and crop. Strong pose, nicely captured.

I see a pretty strong magenta cast on the entire image, on my monitor.

I might try a bit of shadow work if you haven't already. I think you can bring up the birds right eye and underparts a bit without looking unnatural.

Randy

[Peter Wallack]

Fine Image. Good thread here.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Elmar, super posture, and well timed to capture the open beak. I agree with Dave regarding the comp, and agree with Randy on the colour cast.

[Dr.Pranay Rao Juvvadi]

Agree with the space above, NR on BG. I guess there was a crow mobbing it from above! Loved the bird's pose and the open beak.

[Elmar Venter]

Thanks everyone for the comments. Do you suggest running a firmware update on my 50D to sort out the cast on future takes? Yes, there were a couple of ravens giving this guy a real hard time.

[Randy Stout]

Elmar:

I am not a Canon shooter, but am pretty sure this is a recognized issue with the 50D and I believe there is a firmware fix for it. One of the canon shooters will chime in I am sure, but if they don't just post it to the photography gear forum, and you will get some input.

Randy

[Juan Carlos Vindas]

Great bird and wing spread.
I would just suggest to desat the magentas a bit.

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Cool screaming pose and BG. Yes to the firmware update and I would tone down the legs and the area around the beak. Maybe a slight crop off the bottom?

[Elmar Venter]

Thanks for all the great input. I finally got around today to work on this image again. I tried to get rid of the colour cast, changed the comp, burnt the legs and the beak and ran another round of noise reduction. Would love to hear your views on the revised version.

[Kiran Poonacha]

Loved this.. the repost sure looks better.. great pose, super angle and the screaming put it on the top.. congrats