Pygmy Falcon - Samburu, Kenya
30D 500mm 1/500 at f/8 ISO 400 Bean bag. Almost full frame. Cloned out a small twig above its tail. From a trip with Joe & Mary Ann McDonald.
Pygmy Falcon
Pygmy Falcon - Samburu, Kenya
30D 500mm 1/500 at f/8 ISO 400 Bean bag. Almost full frame. Cloned out a small twig above its tail. From a trip with Joe & Mary Ann McDonald.
Steve:
Lovely little raptor, what feet!
Sharp, well exposed, nice angle, fluffed up feathers a plus.
The lighting has left his face a bit dark, as well as the eye. An easy fix.
Very nice overall. I would try to clean up the light spot at the junction of his tail and back.
Cheers
Randy
Steve:
I took a quick pass at bringing up the face and eye. Just an option for you.
Randy
Excellent job Steve. Very well composed and fantastic details. Randy did a wonderful job with eye.
Ok RandyOriginally Posted by Randy Stout
This is a stunning bird. Love the clean BG and environment. The PS trick makes this one looks even better, but, can you share the treatment you have given to this image?:)
Steve this is a excellent image of a very cool looking bird...very sharp, excellent details, interesting perch, nice complementary background. I like the original post better...the eye in the repost appears too bright and a bit cloudy to me.
Congrats on a very nice job!
Cheers!
Bruce
I prefer the original as well.....considering the lighting the repost eyes are too bright although I do like the lighter head feathers.
awesome bird , lovely compo , repsot looks better to me
TFS
Randy - I like the repost better, too. Thanks for doing it. Steve
these are lovely raptors - down here we mostly find them in arid and semi-arid regions. great sharpness and detail and I concur with Randy's sentiments.
Juan Carlos:
PS treatment given to eye and face area:
Copy of background layer
Dodge tool set at 10%, highlights, few quick passes over face to lighten to taste
Dodge tool over eye, initially on shadows for a couple of passes, then on highlights to bring up catchlight.
I tend to go slightly overboard on these adjustments, and then use the opacity slider to fine tune the final overall effect.
I try to keep it looking natural, and thought my adjustments were within that range, based on the lighting on the breast area. Some felt I over did it, which is why BPN is so helpful, lots of valid opinions.
Cheers
Randy
Thank yo so much for the extra information Randy, the reason why I asked was because I handle it in a different way, but I see yours and sounds like a good option. To me the eye on your repost seems a bit over done, but the rest is fine to me.
jc
Great find, good angle and BG. Adding to the other comments, I would sharpen the bird a bit less.
Love the ruffled feathers. One of my favourite raptors, they are so small. it looks as though it was a cold morning.
Excellent capture - like the pose, plumage datail and verdent background colour. Perhaps the OP could be a little bighter.
A much better way than using the dodge tool --something I never use--is to duplicate the background layer, make adjustments to the new layer with a linked curves adjustment layer(so you can go back later and make changes to the curve if you want)(or just use a curves layer), apply a mask, invert, then paint in with a brush switching back and forth between black and white fore-background color at whatever opacity you desire. Everything is editable or reversible. Dodge and burn tools don't allow you to adjust things as you want exactly ---or as the picture needs either. They are very basic and primitive at best.
Fantastic to get him all fluffed upped like this Steve--Nice!
Paul
Last edited by paul leverington; 11-02-2009 at 07:07 AM.
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