Bearded vulture....again

[Betsie Storm]

I post this one for the extreme HA. The head is not separated from the body; the BG was an awful grey-white which I fixed somewhat with curves; cropped & sharpened, some levels. Noise on the underwings; applied some light NR. C&C welcome as always.
EXIF:
Camera Model: Canon EOS-1D Mark II N
Date/Time: 2009:10:12 09:32:45
Shutter speed: 1/3200 sec
Aperture: 5.6
Exposure mode: Av
Exposure compensation: +1/3
Flash: Off
Metering mode: Evaluative
Drive mode: Continuous
ISO: 400
Lens: EF500mm f/4.5L USM
Focal length: 500mm
AF mode: AI Servo AF

[Arthur Morris]

Love the pose but not the huge contrast. I painted a QM of the bird and lightened it by pulling the Curve up and then painted a QM of the bright area, and reduced the contrast and the saturation. Last I darkened the pupil. All as described in Digital Basics (plus APTATS I).

[Stu Bowie]

Betsie, with a HA as extreme as this, it looks like he overshot his mark. I like the overall flying posture, and its never easy to judge the correct EC when looking up to the sky. Still well captured.

[Clement Francis]

Nice shot of my most favorite bird of prey

[Betsie Storm]

Thanks Artie for repost and info. I forgot about using RGB curves:o.
Stu we were shooting with the mountain as BG, so did not even try to change for the sky- just followed them around and got a few sharp images:). All, thanks for commenting.

[Morkel Erasmus]

like the pose and HA Betsie - I've yet to go to Giant's Castle to shoot these beauties. Arties repost has made the bird look a lot better, but your OP had a halo that's still visible in the repost (probably due to S/H adjustments)

:)

[Arthur Morris]

like the pose and HA Betsie - I've yet to go to Giant's Castle to shoot these beauties. Arties repost has made the bird look a lot better, but your OP had a halo that's still visible in the repost (probably due to S/H adjustments):)

You are most correct, sir. It is a wide faint halo; I forgot to mention it. Another reason why a QM with Control M is much better. I painted outside the lines a bit but it was easy to erase the too-white sky when I was done.

[Betsie Storm]

Thanks Morkel, Artie- yes, the dreaded halo (also) caught me out. Several lessons learnt on this post in addition to the good tech advice- Don't do pp in a hurry, don't think posting it will miraculously make it look better than on your own screen:). That said, I'm keen to redo this one from scratch when there is some time.