Hello, all. Life has kept me away too long. Here's one from Viera Wetlands in Melborne, taken two weeks ago. It's my best photo of the elusive (at least to me) Kingfisher, but still not great. Processed with LR3 Beta, just for kicks!
I'm pretty happy with it, all things considered. The white neck is a bit bright and I would prefer less of an up angle, but the head angle is nice and the overall IQ is pretty good for the techs:
2009:10:18
1dm3 @ 1120mm (800 + 1.4x)
Av @ 1/1250 sec, f/8
Eval +1 1/3, ISO 640
~ 50% crop
Hi Dan, I enjoyed your image. Pretty good light and the head angle works for me. I agree that the whites on the neck are a bit bright. I am seeing pixels of 250+ in that region. It might be worth trying to reprocess to see if you could tone down the hot spots. If your not familiar with it there is a couple good threads on saving whites is the educational Resources Forum. Pretty good detail for a 50% crop. In a prefect world it would have been nice to see the feet. Thanks for sharing.
The repost is an improvement. The feathers of the folded wing look a bit sharper than the face so perhaps some selective sharpening of the face would also be in order. I like the just enough look back head turn.
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Check out the new SONY e-Guide and videos that I did with Patrick Sparkman here. Ten percent discount for BPN members,
BTW, unless this is a huge crop which I doubt the bird could not have been that elusive....
BIRDS AS ART Blog: great info and lessons, lots of images with our legendary BAA educational Captions; we will not sell you junk. 30+ years of long lens experience/e-mail with gear questions.
BIRDS AS ART Online Store: we will not sell you junk. 35 years of long lens experience. Please e-mail with gear questions.
Check out the new SONY e-Guide and videos that I did with Patrick Sparkman here. Ten percent discount for BPN members,
You are probably right about selective sharpening the face - I'll try that when I get back in Lightroom.
Kingfishers have an annoying habit of flying around every time I point a camera at them. This one was a creature of habit, though and returned to a distant perch for me. Even with the 800 and 1.4x this is a 30% crop.
been a long time...
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